Someone has heard them scream
by magkiln
Summary: A council ship on a routine survey mission comes across a derelict vessel of unknown origin. Upon boarding, they find a single body, curiously asari-like, with its chest burst open as if from the inside. When the ship's owners arrive, first contact has to be made under the worst possible circumstances. (Rated T for violence and some horror)
1. Prologue

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox

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**Unnamed star system**

The ship was dead in space, orbiting a lifeless rock that barely deserved to be called a planet. It could have remained there, undetected, until the central star of the system exploded, except for the message that it broadcast across a broad stretch of the electromagnetic spectrum

**MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY **

**USCSS CALYPSO 200512897 – EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED **

**MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY**

**USCSS CALYPSO 200512897 – EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED **

**MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY **

Captain Shiana Armali listened to the signal for what must have been the thousandth time and looked at her salarian first officer.

"Any success at getting a translation, Levarn?"

"Negative, captain. Signal does not match any known language and the sample is insufficient for our translation software to attempt a translation without references. In fact, we cannot even be completely sure, that these are actually words."

"What about the ship itself? I know it doesn't match any known profiles, but can we trace the design or construction?"

The salarian looked at his display, which showed several open search windows.

"Not so far, captain."

Captain Armali looked at the scans of the distant vessel. Compared to her own ship, the Thessia-designed _Light of Dawn,_ it seemed utilitarian and somewhat crude: a small crew compartment stuck low on the front of a massive, box-like structure that was most likely a cargo hold. Two massive engines were mounted on top of the of the hull with several smaller engines, most likely manoeuvring thrusters, distributed along the sides. No attempt had been made to blend cargo hold, crew area, and engines together and there was no sign that aesthetics had played any part in the design. Apart from the short broadcast, which seemed to be repeating itself indefinitely, there was no sign of activity aboard the vessel.

Aboard the orbiting vessel, a computer program was activated as the _Light of Dawn _ approached. The presence of an unknown ship had been registered by the sensors and the program attempted to match the energy signature to the data in its library. No identification was made. This was an eventuality for which the program had not been designed. The crew would have to decide on the course of action. Unfortunately, it seemed that no crew members were available to make such a decision.

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**Some background information: **

**The idea for this story started out quite differently. I intended to tell the story of Alien (the movie) inside the Mass Effect universe, but with a twist: The 'Space-Jockey' would be human and the crew of the Nostromo would be replaced by a group of ME aliens (humanity being unknown to them). If living humans appeared at all, it would have been at the end of the story, with the humans coming in to clean up the mess. However, I quickly ran into trouble:**

**1) Alien, for all its suspense, is actually a slow moving story. It relies on a combination of visual impressions and careful pacing to build tension. Attempting to do the same in written form seemed like a big challenge. Perhaps an experienced writer could do it, but I didn't think I'd be able to do it justice. Most likely the story would quickly become boring.**

**2) jerseydanielgibson has already done an incredible job of retelling Aliens (Seriously, if you haven't done so already, check out ****Mass Effect vs Aliens: The Siege Of Hadley's Hope and its sequel ****Mass Effect Vs Aliens 2: Valkyrie Rising). Trying something similar would have looked a bit too derivative.  
**

**3) I just couldn't make the plot work. In Alien, the situation becomes critical because the Nostromo is far from help. They have to deal with the problem themselves. In the ME universe travel times are short: hours or days. It would be easy to call for help, or quickly move the ship to a place where a special forces team could move in and neutralise the threat. After all, there is only one xenomorph on board. They should be able to handle that.  
Also, why would the ME races even bother? In Alien, the derelict ship and the xenomorph are special because humans have not met intelligent alien life. (That got messed up in the prequels.) For the ME races it is old news. Sure, it is an interesting creature, but not so special that they'd go to insane lengths to aquire it. That removes the need for all the secrecy, even if I replaced Weyland-Yutani with a lab on Noveria. So, no need for the Nostromo to make the pickup, just send a properly equiped team. Under those circumstances it's unlikely that things would go so wrong (I know, in Prometheus the scientists messed everything up, too, but those guys were so stupid it was emberassing. I don't want to write a story that relies on the protagonists being too dumb to live.) I thought of quarians boarding the derelict, just to salvage it (shifting their motivations away from the xenomorph). However, it seems unlikely that quarians, being fanatical about decontamination procedures, would ever allow the facehugger on board.  
**

**So, I gave up on this idea. Perhaps I'll get back to it later, but for the moment it just seems too difficult. Still, I liked the idea of the role-reversal as well as the Alien + ME combo. So, I tried to figure out an alternative scenario and this is the result. With humans taking a more active part in the story I had to more worldbuilding as well. In order to make that easier, I have started a second story: Intelligence reports. This will eventually contain a series of infodumps, disguised as in-universe espionage.  
**


	2. Chapter 1: Decisions 1

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox

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**Council survey vessel Light of Dawn**

"So, what do we know?"

Captain Shiana Armali looked around the table in the _Light of Dawn_'s small conference room and almost sighed when no-one answered. Survey ships always had a few dedicated scientists on board and this was precisely the sort of situation where they were supposed to speak up. Unfortunately, because routine surveys of known, lifeless star systems were not generally considered a prestigious posting, one rarely encountered true experts in these assignments. In this particular case she had had the bad luck to receive two graduate students who were doing the job to either fulfill some university requirement, or because they needed the money, she honestly didn't care which. Mordin Solus, her salarian xeno-biology expert, was young, even for his short-lived species, and seemed to oscillate between hyperactive, and, as was currently the case, so distracted he forgot what galaxy he lived in. Still, he was an improvement over her other 'expert'. A xeno-archeologist of all things, just what was needed aboard a star ship. Initially, she had been inclined to give Liara T'Soni the benefit of the doubt. It couldn't have been easy to grow up as the only child of one of the most powerful and respected Asari currently alive, especially for someone who seemed to be rather shy. However, that had been before she had had to endure several weeks in the girl's company. There was only so much stammering and hand-wringing a person could tolerate.

"Solus, T'Soni, I asked a question. What do we know?"

The younger asari threw a nervous look at her fellow scientist, who still seemed oblivious to his surroundings as he studied a datapad, then at her captain, who seemed to be rapidly losing her patience. Apparently, this was sufficient to induce her to speak up.

"Well, the ship seems to be of unknown origin. I mean, it doesn't match any design in our database. Also, there is no sign of life anywhere in this system, so it must have come from somewhere else."

_And thank you for stating the obvious,_ Shiana thought, but carefully didn't say out loud. After all, she was supposed to be the child's mentor no matter how fed up she was with that role. "Please, continue."

"Also, it seems rather primitive, but I guess if they arrived from outside the system it has to be capable of faster than light travel."

"Indeed?! Tell me, T'Soni, did you do that historical search I requested?"

"Yes, captain."

"And?"

"Well, the last survey of this star system occurred two years ago. There was no mention of this ship."

"So it must have arrived in the last two years?"

"Yes, captain. I mean, it was a very thorough survey. They spent nearly a month in this system and even sent a geological team to the surface of this planet. Even if the ship wasn't broadcasting a signal at that time, I cannot believe the surveyors would not have found the ship itself."

"Very good." _and surprising, she actually checked that without prompting and volunteered the information. _"I guess the taxpayers finally have an answer to the question why the council spends money on these routine surveys. The question is, how do we proceed?"

"Well, it seems that this is a first contact situation, but there doesn't seem to be anybody to make contact with."

_And we're back to stating the obvious, I guess it was too good to last._

"Levarn, any news on that signal they're broadcasting?"

"No, captain." The first officer had to far remained silent, allowing his captain to fulfill her teaching duties, but he seemed as impatient as she was and cast a look of severe disapproval at his fellow salarian, a look, which Mordin Solus, still engrossed with his datapad either didn't notice or chose to ignore. "We have run it through every filter we have. From the size and form of the data it sees to be purely audio. Our final results are self-consistent and seem to follow a clear pattern, so we are probably receiving what we are meant to hear, but without a translation it is just so much gibberish."

"May not even be audio." Mordin Solus suddenly spoke up, showing that he had, at least at some level, followed the discussion. "Species may not even communicate by sound. Signal produces pattern, pattern translates to sound, but may not be intended. All we can really say, is that it has a pattern."

"I'm aware of that student Solus," Levarn said coldly. "I simply pointed out that it SEEMS to be an audio message. Not that it HAS to be."

Having experienced Mordin Solus in a talkative mood before, Shiana decided she might as well benefit from it.

"What else can we deduce about this unknown species?"

"Size of airlocks matches salarian, turian, asari, quarian. Small for krogan or elcor, though possible. Height-width relation wrong for Volus." Suddenly, the salarian seemed to feel the need to fill the room with the sound of his voice. At least it showed that he was paying attention. "View through windows by remote drones shows chairs, indicates bipedal species. Markings on hull indicate vision in similar part of spectrum."

"So, we have found another species that matches the general shape of most council races."

"Probably, yes"

"Any ideas how to get their attention?"

"Unclear. No response to transmission, no indication that they have seen our approach. Either, not interested, or not capable of response."

"Then, I suppose there is only one way to proceed."

"You intend to board them, captain?" Her first officer asked.

"I don't see any other way to proceed, Levarn. By now, we are close enough that they could see us with the naked eye. I don't care how primitive their sensors are; if there is anyone on board watching, they must have seen us. I think we can conclude that nobody is watching, which would indicate that the ship is abandoned."

"Perhaps they simply do not wish to talk?"

"I suppose that is possible, but I would have expected to see some activity. This ship is just orbiting, day after day. I know we have insufficient data to be absolutely certain of our findings, but that is not going to change, unless we initiate some kind of interaction."

"We could wait for the council to send a first-contact team."

"And what would they do? The situation would still be the same. Normally I wouldn't advocate just rushing in, but we have been cautious so far and all we have for our trouble is silence. I think it is time we took the gamble."

Levarn blinked a few times, but apparently decided that either her argument had sufficient merit, or that further arguing was simply pointless.

"Very well, captain. How do you wish to proceed?"

"I suppose that depends on our options. Can our shuttle match with their airlock?"

Levarn took another look at the schematics.

"It should be possible, but I wouldn't recommend it, captain. It would probably take several attempts to match the docking collars and in the mean time anyone inside would be getting very nervous. Remember, we'd be docking right on top of their crew compartment."

"... and if someone panics we might walk straight into gun fire. Yes, I see your point. You prefer one of the cargo hatches?"

"Yes, There are several large cargo hatches at the rear of the cargo module. A shuttle would easily fit inside. We can land the shuttle straight away and proceed on foot inside the hatch. That way, if anyone is on board, it will take them some time to reach us, giving both sides time to prepare. Also, they can see us clearly, so we can show that we are not pointing weapons at them; and we can attempt direct communication, without electronics complicating things."

"Good point. We'll take the cargo hatch."

"You plan on going yourself, captain?"

"Yes, no offence Levarn, but when it comes to first-contact, we asari have a better track record than anyone else. I'll take our two science experts and a security detail. You will have command of the_ Light of Dawn. _And, Levarn?"

"Yes, captain?"

"No rescue missions if we lose contact. We don't know what is going on aboard that ship. If something is wrong, I don't want us both walking into the same trap."

It took several hours to prepare for the boarding action. Then a shuttle, carrying captain Armali and five of her crew members launched from the Light of Dawn toward a rendez-vous with the unknown vessel.

* * *

At some distance from the _Light of Dawn_ a small object floated through space in a wide orbit around the same planet. It neither emitted radiation, nor used any kind of active means to change its position. In short, to the casual observer it appeared to be no more than a small piece of space-debris. A lone asteroid perhaps hat had been caught in the gravity well of the planet.

A not-so-casual observer might have noticed that, although no active emissions emanated from the object, it featured a number of small antennae, as well as a smooth round opening, which, curiously enough, was permanently pointed toward the two ships that were now orbiting the planet.

Inside the object, subroutines that had been standing by, waiting for any change in the observed image, woke up and started registering data. It took only a handful of seconds to reach a conclusion:

_Change == .true., Relevant == .true._

This in turn caused the main program running the object to activate another subroutine. This new subroutine was both smarter and dumber than the others. Smarter, in that it was more versatile, had more options, and more authority, to base its decisions on; but also dumber, because whereas the image analysis routines were very good at their, admittedly limited, tasks, the new subroutine was less skilled, more prone to making errors or not deciding at all. Still, a decision had to be made and the subroutine tried very hard to reach the correct one. It compared the images to the files in its library and cycled through a series of historical precedents. The answer was: _inconclusive._ Additional sensor data flowed in from other sensors, complicating the picture. If the subroutine had been able to, it would have been scratching its head, trying to make sense of all the information that was bombarding it. Still, within a few seconds, enough information had been collected that a new answer appeared. The subroutine closed its decision loop and returned that answer:

_Change == .true., Relevant == .true., Immediate_response == .true._

The main program received the answer with what almost constituted an electronic sigh of relieve. Indecision was an awkward state for any computer program to be in. The program made a new call, this time to the hardware. On the surface a small, but powerful laser adjusted its aim, looking for point in the outer reaches of the star system. It fired a single pulse and waited for an answer. None came. The laser adjusted its aim again and fired a new pulse. This time, an answering pulse appeared after several minutes.

_Connection == .true._

That was al the information the program needed. Within a fraction of a second the laser became active again, this time flickering rapidly as a compressed data stream was being fed through its control systems and sent off into the depths of space.


	3. Chapter 2: Decisions 2

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox

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To everybody that has been reading this story, thanks for taking an interest!

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**USM Anzio**

The United Systems Military Rapid Deployment Vessel _Anzio_ had been observing the situation for over a week, carefully hiding behind a gas giant in the outer system as its remotely operated drones kept an eye on both the Calypso, and the unknown vessel that seemed determined to stick its alien nose where it didn't belong. So far things had been quiet, but the latest, unexpected data-transfer from one of its drones had started a flurry of activity, culminating in a hasty meeting in the briefing room.

"What the hell are these people doing?" captain Ramirez snarled as he looked at the latest images. It was clearly meant as a rhetorical question. Even so, one of the two other occupants of the briefing room decided to answer.

"What else did you expect them to do? Sit in their ship and stare at the Calypso for the rest of eternity. What would we do in their place?"

If looks had been able to kill, the blond woman in the grey business suit would have dropped dead on the spot. As it was, captain Ramirez had to content himself with a verbal response.

"Ms. Vickers, I think we are all aware what you and your employers would do in this kind of situation. You've already done it and a lot of people paid the price. I guess I'm naïve enough to hope that somewhere in the universe is a species that is a little more cautious about boarding unknown spacecraft."

Meredith Vickers had the grace to look at least somewhat embarrassed. "Captain, I'm not trying to make excuses for what happened at LV-426. It was a bad call, I admit that. So was that mess on Sevastopol station. But that was decades ago and I'd like to believe that we have learned from our mistakes. You know as well as I do that Weyland-Yutani have also paid a price. That is why we told the United Systems the moment we found out about the Calypso and that is why we offered our assistance in containing this situation. As for what's happening now, I don't think anyone could have predicted that we'd find some alien species sniffing around. I mean, the odds against this happening are astronomical. Still, the situation is what it is and we have to deal with it. I told you from the beginning that waiting was not going to get us anything. Either we leave these aliens to their fate, and I think we all know what that fate will be, or we act. Just sitting on our hands while the situation goes from bad to worse is not the solution."

Captain Ramirez took a deep breath to calm himself before he answered. Truth be told, he had nothing against Meredith Vickers personally. Unfortunately, the loss of an entire Colonial Marine unit at LV-426, followed by subsequent and equally unnecessary losses as Weyland-Yutani and its fellow corporations tried to contain the situation, had left a legacy of distrust that was difficult to overcome. Ultimately the military had benefited enormously from that mess, because the resulting emergency had allowed its officers to grab a lot of power at the expense of the increasingly ineffective corporate boards. On good days captain Ramirez was quite willing to be generous and let bygones be bygones as long as the representatives of corporations remembered their new place in universe and especially if, like Vickers, they happened to be easy on the eyes. This was not a good day, but still...

"Point taken, ms. Vickers. Point taken. Still, that does put us on the spot. As you say, we either leave these people to their fate, or we interfere." He looked at the third person in the briefing room. A tall, squarely built man with a dark complexion, wearing the uniform of the United Systems Marine Corps. "Lieutenant Anderson, are your marines ready for a boarding action?"

"For boarding, yes sir; but for first contact? Not to put too fine a point to it, captain, but as far as the marines are concerned the answer to all things xeno is to shoot them full of holes."

"Oh for..." For the first time Meredith Vickers seemed to be in serious danger of losing her composure. "Lieutenant, I don't think you fully understand the situation. For all we know, these people have a fleet ready to back them up. I understand your marines want to live up to their reputation of bringing peace through superior firepower, but right now that is just not acceptable."

"Ms. Vickers, whoever, or whatever these new aliens may be, there are almost certainly life xenomorphs on board. Now, I can understand your desire for a peaceful first-contact, but my name is NOT Gorman and I'm NOT going to let the xenomorphs wipe out my unit. For that matter, the time that Weyland-Yutani had the power to make such things happen is fortunately a thing of the past."

"I am well aware of that, lieutenant. Which is why we are trying to limit the damage. Not increase it."

"I'll be the first to applaud your attempt to turn over a new leaf and clean up your mess, ma'am, but the fact remains that these are the absolutely worst conditions to make first contact with anyone. If I have to board that vessel, I have to do it as a combat mission, not a diplomatic endeavour. It's not going to be pretty."

"Enough!" Ramirez' voice cut through the argument. "Our bickering is not going to settle this. Anderson, I want your unit ready to move by the time we hit orbit. I'll dust of the first contact protocols. They have to be somewhere in the database, even though we've never used them, and with a bit of luck they'll keep those aliens from shooting at us as we approach. After that, it will be up to you. As for you, Ms. Vickers?"

"Captain?"

"I suggest you start putting together some visuals that will explain to these aliens what is going on. That is, of course, assuming that they actually have eyes."

"Of course, captain."

Vickers left the room, leaving captain Ramirez lieutenant Anderson behind. Ramirez looked at the junior officer.

"Something you wanted to say, lieutenant?"

Lieutenant Anderson took a moment to collect his thoughts, trying to come up with an argument that would convince the captain.

"Sir, I think this is a recipe for disaster. My people will be boarding the Calypso, weapons hot and ready to kill. I don't know who, or what, these aliens are, but at the very least they are going to be startled. At the worst they will think we intend to kill them. One way or another, someone is bound to panic. It doesn't matter who fires the first shot, the damage will be done; and that doesn't even begin to take into account what will happen if we have to engage the xenomorphs. It's bad enough when our own civilians are running around a combat zone. Some unknown alien species? We have nothing! No way of communicating, no way to warn them, no way to explain … Like I said, captain a recipe for disaster."

"Lieutenant, I fully understand your reservations, but consider the alternative: Do you really think it wise to introduce ourselves to these aliens as though we're the idiots that leave ships full of xenomorphs for unsuspecting people to find?"

"It might be closer to the truth than we like, captain." Anderson shrugged. " I understand your point sir, hell I understand Vickers' point. Still, I cannot give any guarantees that this will go peacefully."

Captain Ramirez snorted.

"I know lieutenant. I'm well aware under how much stress everybody will be and how easily it can end in tragedy. I'm not Vickers. The sad thing is, that I think she's sincere. She wants to clean up this mess. Wants to see the corporations go in a more positive direction. And she certainly wants to make peaceful contact with this new species. Think about how much goodwill that will buy for herself and her employers. Now, if she could just rid herself of that stupid corporate arrogance... She still believes that the fact that she wants something will automatically make it happen." He took at deep breath. "Just do the best you can to avoid bloodshed. Don't risk the lifes of your men, though. That is our ship out there. The aliens chose to board it, if it goes wrong the consequences are on them."

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_**OK, that introduces all the main characters, except one, and establishes the timeline. **_

_**For the ME universe, I see this story as taking place around the time of he First Contact War. For the Alien universe, it would be about 50 years after the events of Aliens. At first I hadn't intended to use any of the canon characters from the Alien franchise other than mentioning them posthumously, (most of them don't survive the movies anyway), but I decided to import Vickers from Prometheus. It annoyed me that they had an actress like Charlize Theron and wasted her on a part that was ultimately useless to the story. Besides, I kind of liked Vickers. She seemed the only person in the whole movie that had an ounce of common sense.**_


	4. Chapter 3: Welcome aboard

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

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**Shuttlecaft on approach to unidentifed ship**

Captain Shiana Armali looked around the interior of the shuttle. Only three of her boarding team were with her in the cargo compartment, because both of her 'science experts' were up front in the cockpit, with the pilot. This allowed them to see the strange ship as they approached.

_It's like playing tourist with a group of children, but at least they seem to be focused. _

As the shuttle circled around the ship she got her first close-up view of the strange vessel. Once again she was struck by the stark utilitarian lines. While the overall shape had looked like a collection of cargo boxes stacked against each other from a distance, the effect was even more pronounced at close range. Instruments and antennae protruded without any sign that someone had made the attempt to fare them into the lines of the hull; the windows of the crew compartment looked as though someone had taken a saw to the hull plating; and the massive thrusters appeared to have been welded on top as an afterthought. _Who designs a ship like this? Do they have no thought for aesthetics at all? _

The shuttle made a final turn to approach one of the cargo doors at the rear of the ship and settled gently inside the opening.

"Alright people, remember, if there is anybody on board, then by now they must know we have docked. There is absolutely no way to predict how they will react. They may be on their way with heavy artillery to kill us all, or they may be cowering in some storage locker, or anything inbetween." Shiana turned toward the pilot. "Lucinus, I want you stay here. Not just inside the shuttle, but inside the cockpit. No matter what happens. We may have to leave in a hurry."

The turian nodded sharply. "I understand captain. I will be at my post at all times."

_I know_, Shiana thought to herself. _That's why I chose you for the job. _Turians were fairly rare aboard council survey ships due to the special dietary requirements, caused by their dextro-aminoacids. However, for a situation such as this they were ideal. Lucinus would stay at his post until he was either relieved or he died of old age. Turians took such things seriously.

"The rest of you will come with me to the airlock. Once we're inside, I'll leave two of you at the airlock to make sure that no-one can take over the shuttle and trap us on board. The others will come with me. We'll make our way toward the crew compartment. Once there..., well, to be honest I have no idea what we'll do next. It will depend on what we find."

* * *

The cargo hatch was huge, dwarfing the boarding party as they tried to find a way to activate the airlock. This proved to be easier than expected. Next to the main entrance was a smaller airlock, approximately the same size as used by most council species for personnel transfer.

"Captain!" Liara T'Soni, who had been searching around the smaller airlock for some indication as how it should be used, seemed to have found something. "I think I have found a set of instructions."

Her discovery proved to be both useful and utterly confusing. Rather than some form of writing, a plaque near the airlock was covered with what appeared to be childlike drawings.

"Do these people still write in hieroglyphs?" One of the crew asked in an unbelieving voice.

"Unlikely," that was Mordin Solus, pushing his way to the front. "Hieroglyphs impractical, imprecise. Useless for conveying science or engineering. More likely part of species illiterate, like vorcha. Or have multiple languages." He studied the drawings, which depicted a stylized figure that could have been almost any of the council races manipulating a lever mounted next to the airlock. "Earlier assumptions correct. Species bipedal. Instructions seem clear too. Almost like invitation."

"Then I suppose we should take them up on that invitation." Shiana grabbed the lever and pulled it down as shown in the drawings. The airlock opened, showing a chamber, large enough to accommodate the entire boarding party. Cycling the airlock from the inside proved simple enough, thanks to a second set of instructions found at the interior hatch. As soon as they entered the ship lights along the walls activated automatically and the small boarding party found themselves inside a huge cavernous cargohold, that appeared to be mostly empty.

Shiana checked her omnitool. The atmosphere on board seemed breathable, though the temperature was well below what any known species would have found comfortable. That was a good sign. Apparently, the life support systems were still operational. Still, it was better not to take any chances.

"Alright people, no time for sightseeing yet. If there is anyone on board, we'd better make contact as soon as possible. Remember, we are guests here, so try to look friendly and don't make threatening moves. Also, don't take of your helmets. I know the atmosphere looks good, but I don't want to run any risks."

Shiana gave her team a quick look and made her selection.

"Donal and V'Rini, stay at the airlock. T'Soni, Solus, and Moryala, come with me."

This selection ensured that each group would have both salarian and asari members. The first-contact manuals all emphasized that a show of inter-species cooperation would increase the likelihood of a positive result. Besides, she could be sure that Moryala, a former commando with a lot of combat experience, would help her keep an eye on the two scientists. With a last look around the empty cargobay, Shiana led her companions moved toward the rear wall, where a staircase let upwards toward a door.

* * *

The journey toward the crew compartment was far from comfortable. Whoever had designed the ship was either very comfortable with small spaces, or cared very little about crew comfort. Quite possibly both. The door near the roof of the rearmost cargohold had given Shiana and her companions access to a small corridor that seemed to run the length of the ship. Unfortunately, the corridor was rather narrow and poorly lit. Moreover, the doors along the way seemed to be either locked, or opened onto yet more cargo space.  
At last, after what seemed like hours, the small group reached the end of the corridor, which ended with a hatch in the floor.

"This is much better." Moryala said as she looked around. Shiana couldn't help but agree. Beneath the hatch they had found what appeared to be the working and living area of the crew. While it had the same minimalist look as the outside of the ship, it was a huge improvement over the cramped corridor. This part of the ship consisted of a series of interconnected rooms that seemed to have been designed for people who had the same general physiology as most of the citadel races, although a Krogan or an elcor would probably have had trouble passing through the doors.  
This area of the ship also showed the first indications as to the nature of the crew. One room held what appeared to be some form of sleeper pods; another seemed to have been designed for preparing food. Utensil,s that appeared similar to what one of the citadel races would have used, littered several workspaces and a small storage locker held number of strange objects, each made up of multiple thin leaves, covered in what appeared to be some form of writing. While the two scientists on the team, under the watchful eye of Moryala, were looking through the compartments, searching for more information about the species that had built and operated the vessel, Shiana made her way forward toward where she believed the bridge to be.  
The general layout of the crew area turned out to be simple enough, with a central corrider flanked on either side by compartments. At the end of the corridor a wide door opened onto the bridge.  
Shiana looked around, fascinated by what she saw. The ship's controls appeared to be both familiar and strangely archaic. They seemed to consist of flat projection screens and mechanical buttons, rather than the haptic interfaces found throughout council space. Most of the screens were dark, but a few glowed, showing symbols that must have been either letters or numbers related to the operational functions of the ship.  
While she was still looking around, taking it all in and trying to figure out how to proceed, she heard a shout behind her.

"Captain!" It was Moryala' voice. "Come quickly! I think we have found a crewmember."

She quickly turned around and ran toward the voice. In one of the rooms, she found the memebers of her team, gathered around an open hatch in the floor. The hatch appeared to have been forced open from the inside, the locking mechanism partially melted away. Inside the small room below lay the body of a bipedal creature. It seemed as though it had suffered some form of trauma to the chest, which showed a gaping hole surrounded by what appeared to be red coloured blood. Still, that was not the first thing that drew Shiana's attention.

"Is that …. is that an asari?"

"Negative," Solus, clearly eager now that they had found something that appeared to be within his area of expertise, lowered himself through the hatch.

"Skull smooth, not skulped. Skin-colour wrong, evidence of fur. Still, resemblance remarkable. Similar body, similar facial structure, five digits on each hand. Fascinating. Cause of death …" He hesitated. "Problematic."

"It seems like someone shot it in the chest."

"Not shot," Solus knelt beside the body, runnnig a gloved finger along the rim of the wound. "Ribs bent outward. No sign of explosion though. Almost like, something pushed its way out of his chest."

* * *

**Council survey vessel Light of Dawn**

On the bridge of the _Light of Dawn,_ Levarn was pacing back and forth, anxiously awaiting news from his captain and her team. The last message he had received, relayed through the shuttle, had informed him that captain Armali was making her way toward the crew area of the unknown ship. That was more than an hour ago and there had been no news since. Levarn was not happy about that state of affairs. Although he understood the captain's arguments and her desire to board the vessel, he would have preferred a more cautious approach. Now all he could do was wait for news and his patience was rapidly wearing thin. Therefore, it was with a sense of relief that he heard one of the crew members call his name.

"Officer Levarn?"

"Yes, what news?"

"Sir, it is not the captain. It's..., I have a contact on long range scanners. It's approaching rapidly, but I cannot identify the energy signature."

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**_Another short chapter. I'm still trying to find out how quickly I can write these updates._ **


	5. Chapter 4: First contact 1

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

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**USM Anzio**

"Alright people, let's go through the briefing one more time."

Lieutenant David Anderson looked around the shuttle bay of the _Anzio, _where his strike team had assembled.

"Calypso, a tramp freighter, was docked at the Sanctum research station when the xenomorphs they were studying escaped. Calypso took off, carrying a load of xenomorph eggs. They were scheduled to deliver them to a different lab, but they never arrived. Everybody assumed that either the eggs hatched, or a xenomorph got on board before they left Sanctum and the crew were killed. When Weyland-Yutani found a copy of their travel plan in some old database, they contacted the Military as per our ongoing agreement, and we managed to locate the ship. Unfortunately, we're not the only ones. Even more unfortunately, the aliens have decided to board Calypso. I don't think I have to explain to anyone what will happen if we don't interfere."

"What do we know about these aliens, sir?" Asked corporal Ishmael, one of the squad leaders. "Are they the same ones that Weyland-Yutani found in that ship on LV-426?"

"Possibly," Anderson replied. "But I doubt it. The design of their ship is quite different. That wreck on LV-426 looked like a giant horseshoe. This one is more like a flying stingray with a big glowing hole in it. Besides, that guy was huge. We got a look at the shuttle these people used and I don't think such a big creature could even fit inside."

"Besides," one of the other marines piped up. "That ship was old. Shouldn't those guys have evolved into pure energy beings by now?"

"You really should stop watching cheap SciFi flicks, O'Connor," Anderson said. "That stuff will rot your brain. Anyway, the plan of attack is simple. Calypso has two airlocks between the crew compartment and the cargo hold, one on either side of the ship. We go in with two shuttles at once, hit both airlocks at the same time. I'll lead one, sergeant Zim the other." He looked at the towering figure of his senior NCO, who had so far remained silent. "Once on board, we secure the bridge." He pointed at the spot on a diagram of the Calypso that was spread out on the deck. "We will also detain any aliens we find. Ms. Vicker, our corporate representative, will be joining us on my shuttle. She is preparing some simple images that we can show these aliens to try to explain what is going on."

There was a collective groan.

"Enough of that! I understand you don't want to babysit a civilian, but she will not board until we consider the area secure, so she will not get in your way and you don't have to play bodyguard. Once we have control of the ship, we'll try to figure out what has happened. Depending on what we find, we'll either kill all xenomorphs and secure the ship, or evacuate and destroy it."

"Sir," Ishmael spoke up again. "Do we have any idea how many hostiles we can expect?"

"Corporal, your guess is as good as mine. It could be only one, it could be a dozen."

"Surely that Vickers woman must know how many people were on board. Figure one chestburster for each. That should give us an idea"

"I know it's frustrating, Ishmael, but the truth is that nobody know how many people were on board that ship. Not me, and not Vickers."

"With all due respect, sir, do you seriously believe that. She's corporate! They never tell us everything."

"That may be so, corporal, but in this case, yes, I do believe her. When Calypso slipped from the dock, the Sanctum base was already in chaos." Anderson shrugged. "We don't know if all of the crew had made it back on board, or maybe somebody hitched a ride; We don't have a count on how many of those bloody eggs they had on board. We don't even know what actually happened after they took off. Perhaps a xenomorph had sneaked on board, or one of the crew had one in his chest, or one of the eggs hatched. Of course, now it's even more complicated. We don't know how many of these aliens were on that shuttle. If there are active xenomorphs on board they may get snagged."

"Sir," Sergeant Zim spoke up for the first time. "What about rules of engagement? It sounds as tough there will be both hostiles and neutrals in the combat zone."

Anderson took a deep breath before replying. This was the toughest issue. "I'll make this clear to all of you. The rules of engagement for this OP are very simple. Rule 1: If you see a xenomorph, you shoot first and ask later. Rule 2: Anything else, you ask first and shoot later, as long as it doesn't interfere with rule 1. I'm not kidding. We don't want to make first contact with whoever these people might be by shooting them, but we're not going to take any risks. This is still a combat operation and we will treat it as such. Any more questions?"

No-one spoke up.

"Good, board your shuttles. We'll be in range within the hour."

As the marines moved out, he noticed that the sergeant was hanging back, trying to get him alone.

"Anything on your mind, sergeant?"

Sergeant Zim, who probably had more combat missions under his belt than the rest of the unit combined looked decidedly uncomfortable.

"To be honest, lieutenant, I don't like it. I think the troops are too much on edge. They're scared. Not just of the xenomorphs. They're scared of whatever else they're about to meet. Someone is going to get hurt. Perhaps some of ours, but definitely these aliens. I don't think the brass are going to like it. Or the government."

"I'm well aware of that, sergeant. I'm very well aware of that, but the alternative is worse. For all we know, there could be a dozen xenomorphs waiting for us on the other side of those airlocks."

"I know that sir. It's just-"

"That you know what will happen to us, and especially me, if we screw this up. I know it too. The thing is, you have to be alive for any of that too happen, so let's make sue that we get through this alive."

"Yes, sir!"

Anderson looked around the shuttle bay and spotted Vickers, who had just entered, carrying a suitcase and something that looked suspiciously like a shotgun. He sighed. No matter how many problems you fixed, something else always came up.

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

A sudden noise broke through the silence as the boarding party stood around the dead alien. Through the open doors they could see that red lights were flashing on the bridge. As they entered the bridge, they found that many of the formerly dead instruments had come to life.

"Captain!" Liara T'Soni was looking at one of the screens that had been activated. " I think I have something here."

She was staring at a row of symbols that seemed to be changing continuously.

"I think these are some kind of numbers. Look," she pointed at the symbol on the far right. "This one seems to be cycling through the same series of symbols over and over. There are..." she checked on her omnitool. "... ten different symbols. The sequence is always the same and when it reaches this one, the symbol to the left changes. I think, if we wait long enough that this pattern would repeat for the next symbol as well."

"Ten symbols," Mordin Solus was now looking at the same screen. "makes sense. Species has five digits on each hand, like asari. Logical to use base ten for numbers, like asari."

"Makes sense, " Shiana said. " Still, we are no closer to know what it means. I suppose it could be some kind of clock, but why would it appear now?"

At that moment her omnitool suddenly flashed, indicating that a call from the _Light of Dawn_ was being forward from the boarding shuttle.

* * *

**USM Anzio**

In the combat operations centre of the Anzio a technician wearing a virtual reality helmet and gloves was working quickly while several of her fellow techs, and captain Ramirez, watched the results on a screen.

"I'm in, sir. Contact with Calypso's central computer. Trying to take control of the vessel." Her hands moved rapidly as she manipulated controls only she could see inside the VR environment.

"Good." Ramirez didn't take his eyes of the screen as he followed the tech's progress.

"Result negative, sir. There is a manual override. Someone on the Calypso has to allow me in. Trying to bypass. Result negative. There is a hardware cut-out. I cannot get any further.

"Bunch of pirates," Ramirez snorted. "No surprise they wouldn't want anyone to take control from the outside.

"Accessing logs." She was silent for a moment as a stream of data passed in front of her eyes. "Sir, the ship has been under minimal power for years, sitting in orbit. Engineering: shut down, bridge controls: shut down. Life support minimal, until two hours ago."

"Why did it activate?"

"Entrance of multiple individuals through cargo hatch, sir. The computer has noted some discrepancies from the norm, but it recognized them as 'human' and reactivated atmosphere and temperature controls."

"Do you have a head count?"

"No sir, the computer has no data and there are no cameras at the cargo hatch."

"Pitty. Alright, leave it for now. Once the boarding party has secured the bridge, they'll be able to give us full access. In the mean time, do you have any way to contact that alien vessel?"

The technician's hands moved rapidly as she disconnected from the Calypso's computer.

"I can see some emission, sir, but I cannot interface with it. There are patterns, but the VR interface doesn't know how to interpret them. Perhaps if I activated an electronic warfare package-"

"No, we don't want them to think we're hacking their systems. At least, not yet. Stand by for now. Let's activate the first-contact package and see what that gets us."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

"I understand, Levarn. Stick to first contact protocols and try to make contact. Don't risk the ship. If you have to abandon us, do it."

Shiana closed the channel and looked at the others.

"I assume you all heard the news. I cannot imagine that all this," she pointed at the newly activated instruments, "is a coincidence. That number pattern is probably a time to arrival, or a closing distance to that new ship. It seems, that we're about to have company. "

"Captain," Moryala said. "I don't think we want to be here when the aliens board. I mean, think about it. Presumably, this is their ship, so they're bound to come over here to investigate. If they find us here... We came aboard uninvited and now we're standing next to the corpse of one of their species. What will that look like to them?"

"But it's obviously been dead for a while. They cannot possibly think that -"

"Captain, we don't actually know how long it's been dead, or if they can tell that easily; or if they'll even check before they open fire. It's not as though we'll be able to explain it to them. Not right away. But if we're not here when they arrive, they'll have the chance to take a second look, maybe think things through. Plus, if we wait for them in the cargo hold, we'll have a nice big area, where everybody can see each other clearly, not these cramped little rooms."

"Right, I see your point."

Shiana activated her omnitool to open a link to the other half of her boarding party.

"Donal, V'Rini, come in please."

"Yes, captain?" It was V'Rini who answered

"You're aware of the new arrivals?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good, we're coming back to you. If these aliens dock, it'll probably be at the front. We'll wait for them in the cargo bay."

"Yes, captain, I understand. Ma'am. I think you should know. There seems to be something in here."

"What do you mean, something?

"Our omnitools keep giving readings of movement nearby, but we cannot actually see anything."

Her voice faded away for a moment, but Shiana could still hear it faintly as she spoke to her companion.

Then, suddenly,

"What is-, oh goddess, shoot it! SHOOT IT! SHOOT-"

The sound of gunfire cut off V'Rini's voice.

"V'Rini!"

There was only silence.

**!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!**

**I'm playing a little bit with names and franchises here. Sanctum was actually a Cerberus base in ME3. It seemed fitting to use it for something equally corrupt. Sergeant Zim is a character from Starship Troopers (both the book and the movie). I dropped his name partially because I liked the character, and partially because I see humanity as being at about the tech level that we saw in the first Starship Troopers movie. The VR environment hacking scene is based on Tek-Wars.**

**Thanks everyone for the reviews. It's great to see that people are taking an interest. **

**The xenomorph is on his way and will appear in person in the next chapter. He has spent a long time hybernating and now he's finally awake and there are all these interesting aliens around, so that has been keeping him occupied. Also, I'm still trying to find the right words to describe one of the greatest SciFi creations ever, as seen trough the eyes of an Asari. **

**As to the effect of ME style weaponry, I don't think that melting bullets would be a big problem. By then the bullet has already delivered its energy to the target. Still, the xenomorph is at least somewhat armoured, so you need a heavy calibre weapon to get through. I think it would be like fighting Cerberus Dragoons: an enemy that is relatively small, can move very quickly to close the distance, and once it's is on top of you, it deals a lot of damage. Heavy pistols would seem the best option, because you don't want them to get so close that they are in shotgun range. That will not be a problem for the marines though. For now I'll have them use chemically powered firearms as seen in the Alien franchise.**


	6. Chapter 5: First contact 2

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

**I had the afternoon off and decided to do some writing. Thanks for all the encouragement.**

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**USCSS Calypso**

"V'Rini! Donal!"

There was no answer. Shiana took a deep breath to calm herself, then she activated the communicator again.

"Lucinus?"

"Yes, captain?" She could hear the tension in the Turian's voice. "You heard what just happened?"

"Yes, captain. Shall I investigate?"

"No! Stay with the shuttle. We are coming back your way and will look for V'Rini and Donal. Whatever you do, do not leave the shuttle. If anyone or anything approaches that isn't us: you return to the Light of Dawn."

"Captain-"

"That is an order! Whatever is on board, it must not get near the shuttle. Do you understand?"

"Yes captain. I understand your orders and shall obey them."

For the second time that they, Shiana congratulated herself on her choice of pilot. Blind obedience to orders was not much use when it came to scientific exploration, but in situations such as this it could be a blessing. She turned towards her team.

"Listen carefully. I don't know what we've walked into, but I will not have us all fall into the same trap. We go back to the cargo bay. Once we're there, you two, Solus and T'Soni, will return to the shuttle. No, no arguments. You will return to the shuttle. You are not trained for this. Moryala and I will try to find out what happened. If we find the others, we take them back with us. If not, you will take the shuttle back to the Light of Dawn. It can come back with a security team in full combat gear, if, and only IF, I say so. Otherwise, Levarn must contact the council for instructions. I want everybody to be absolutely clear about this. These are my orders and they are NOT up for debate. Is that absolutely clear?"

Noone spoke

"Good. We're leaving now. Back to that goddess-forsaken corridor. Moryala, as soon as we're inside that corridor, you take the lead and scout ahead. Everybody, draw your weapons. If you see anything remotely threatening, shoot it!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Without further delay the group of four made their way back through the crew compartments and re-entered the narrow passage.

* * *

**USM Anzio**

In the combat operations centre of the Anzio the tension was rising steadily. They were now within weapon range of the alien vessel. Of course there was no telling what sort of weapons the aliens had, but the old saying _If the enemy is in range, so are you, _was going through everybody's mind.

"Have we matched orbits?"

"Yes captain. One thousand kilometers from the alien vessel and holding steady."

"Good. Now, let's introduce ourselves to the neighbours. Begin the first broadcast."

* * *

**Council survey vessel Light of Dawn**

"Mr Levarn! We're receiving a sort of signal from the new vessel."

"What do you mean, a 'sort of signal'?" Levarn's temper had not improved from the hours spent waiting. The news from the captain and her team was extremely worrying and he had to hold himself back not to lash out at someone, anyone, to vent his frustration.

"It doesn't seem to be actual information. Just a carrier wave over a broad spectral interval."

"Could it be a targeting system?"

"I don't think so, sir. The beam is too wide and the signal is not particularly strong. Wait, something is changing. The signal strength is falling. Now rising again. Falling again."

"I'm seeing the same thing here!" Another crewmember had been studying the approaching vessel through a hull mounted telescope. Levarn had looked briefly himself, but quickly grown bored with it. The ship's design was unknown and, at least to his eyes, very ugly. Like the vessel that they had originally found in this system it mainly resembled a collection of boxes, stacked together in an elongated shape, with lots of things sticking out in all directions. For a while the crew of the Light of Dawn had played a guessing game, trying to guess the function of all these objects, but without much success. the only things that were clearly identifiable were the four massive engine pods, sticking out at the rear of the ship and a number of tubes that looked suspiciously like railguns, mounted on the sides. The latter had not helped Levarn's nerves at all. Whoever had built that ship, they had not designed it for peaceful exploration. Now his attention was drawn back to the telescope.

"What precisely do you see?"

"They have lights mounted along the hull, sir. They are blinking."

"Very well, it seems that they are trying to communicate. We may survive this day after all."

There were a few sniggers among the crew, though that may have been due to relief, more than humor.

"Mr Levarn, The pattern is repeating itself: two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen. Then they start over."

"Search the Codex for numerical patterns: element weights, spectra, mathematical, anything at all. And hurry, if we wait to long to respond, they may think we're refusing to communicate."

"I've think I've found it, mr. Levarn," one of the other salarian crew members said after a few minutes. "It's part of a mathematical sequence that includes only those numbers that can not be divided by any other number, other than one, or themselves."

"I see." Levarn looked at the other salarian. "Wait, shouldn't one be on that list as well?"

"Actually, there seems to be some sort of controversy about that."

"I see." Levarn thought for a moment. "No, actually I don't see it at all. Why would they send us that sequence? What is it supposed to tell us?"

"I don't know, mr Levarn. According to the Codex, this sequence is primarily a mathematical curiosity. It doesn't seem to have any practical applications."

"So, what are they saying? That they are a race of mathematicians? That they only want to talk to mathematicians? That they need help with a math problem?"

"I don't know, mr. Levarn. However ..." the salarian's eyes moved rapidly over his display. "Perhaps they don't know what else to send. This sequence is unique. It does not depend on a numerical system. I suppose, if they have never made first contact, they might try to send something that is always recognizable. They may use it as a way of telling us that they want to communicate."

"So, how do you suggest we respond? Can we complete the sequence?"

"That seems problematic, mr. Levarn. Apparently, this sequence cannot be completed. According to the Codex, mathematicians are still finding higher numbers in that sequence. There is an ongoing argument as to whether there even can be a highest number."

"Perhaps these aliens can answer that. Still, that doesn't help us right now. What do we tell them?"

"Well, we could just copy their sequence."

Levarn considered it for a moment. "Perhaps, but that might tell them, that we don't understand what they're doing. Which is true I suppose, but it doesn't get us anywhere."

There was a moment of silence on the bridge.

"Mr. Levarn?" This time it was an Asari who spoke up.

"Yes?"

"Perhaps we should list the numbers they didn't send. Show them, that we're willing to do our part, if they do theirs."

"Hmmm, perhaps. I suppose it's the best idea so far."

* * *

**USM Anzio**

"Captain Ramirez, we're getting a signal from the alien ship. They seem to be doing the same as us, sir. Just blinking the carrier wave.

"Well, what are they sending."

"It's also a sequence of numbers, sir. Wait, they are starting again. One, four, six, eight, nine, ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen."

"What the ... Is that any kind of known sequence?"

"No, sir, I don't- Wait! I see it now. They've filled the spots between the prime numbers."

"Why would they do that?"

"I don't know, sir. Still, at least they are responding."

"And seem to be telling us, that they are our complete opposite! Though what could possibly make them think that..." Ramirez shook his head. "No, if they wanted a fight, we'd be shooting at each other by now. Let's think positive. They may be just as confused as we are. What is next on the list?"

"Powers of two, sir. To show them we use binary for our computers."

Ramirez snorted. "Really? And do you believe they will actually make that leap in logic? No, don't answer that, just do it. And somebody check on lieutenant Anderson's status. I want him ready to deploy, now!"

* * *

**Council survey vessel Light of Dawn**

"Mr Levarn, the pattern is changed. Now they're signalling ... Powers of two, sir."

Levarn allowed himself to relax somewhat. Things were beginning to look up, a little.

"Suggestions, anyone?"

"Perhaps that's their numerical base?"

"Unlikely. That would be awkward. Other suggestions?"

"Perhaps it's the basis for their electronics. They may be using binary, like we do. They're trying to explain to simplify communications."

"I agree," Levarn looked with some approval at the last speaker. "Let's try something a little more complicated. First, send the same signal back. With luck, they'll understand we're accepting. Next, take the standard images of our species that we designed for first-contact and rescale them to use a binary-based size. Zero for dark and one for light, 128 by 128 pixels. Broadcast those. Let's see if they understand."

* * *

**USM Anzio**

David Anderson cursed under his breath as Meredith Vickers walked past him toward the waiting shuttle. Their argument had not been as unpleasant as had feared, but he had lost it. Although the last thing he wanted was an armed civilian wandering around a combat zone, he could hardly fault Vickers for wanting to protect herself and she had shown an impressive list of qualifications. Whle she had never actually been in combat, there was no denying that her firearms training had been better than that of most professional soldiers. So, in the end he had allowed her to keep her shotgun.  
As he walked towards the shuttle, he saw sergeant Zim, who had overseen the loading, waiting for him.

"All done, sergeant?"

"All done, sir. We're as ready as we can be."

"Good. How about the shuttles? Any complaints forom the pilots?"

Zim grinned briefly. "There are always complaints, sir. Nothing new. Although ..."

"What?"

"To be honest, sir, I wish we could use the Cheyennes for this. Call me oldfashioned, but I just feel safer in them."

Anderson looked past the two large boarding shuttles to where a pair of UD-4Y Super-Cheyennes were standing on the deck. Smaller than the Viking shuttles that they would actually be using, the Super-Cheyennes carried a much bigger weapon load and could take a lot more damage. They were the last incarnation of the dropships that had carried Colonial Marines into battle for half a century, and after taking over the United Systems Military had been quite happy to adopt them. Most veterans had a great deal of appreciation for the ugly monstrosities and would always prefer them over the newer, smoother, but ultimately more vulnerable Vikings.

"I know sergeant. I understand. I'll tell you what though. If you built me a fast-entry docking module for a Cheyenne in the next half hour, or so, I'll let you use it."

"I wish, sir."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

As quickly as they could Shiana and her team made their way through the narrow passage. As bad as the original journey had been, the return was a lot worse, hampered as they were by the need to hold on to their weapons and use their omnitools to scan ahead. As planned, Moryala was taking the lead, securing each segment of the corridor before the others entered.  
Halting at the door, Shiana, Solus and T'Soni took a moment to catch their breath as they waited for Moryala's return. Soon, they could hear her footsteps, soft though they were, on the metal grating of the deck.

"Captain, all clear. We can proceed!"

"Good. Opening the door n-"

Shiana was interrupted by the sound of metal on metal. She heard Moryala scream something, a burst of gunfire, then, nothing.  
Shiana flung the door wide open and stepped into the next segment of the passage, submachinegun ready to fire. However, there was nothing to shoot at. The corridor was empty. The only sign of Moryala was a large hole in the middle of the corridor, where one of the metal grates had been removed. Next to the gaping hole lay Moryala's gun. A noise behind her caused Shiana to turn around. her two remaining team mates had followed her into the corridor.

"Back! Get Back!"

Even as she shouted the order, Shiana saw the two scientists looking past her. T'Soni's eyes widened and the girl started shaking. Even Solus' eyes seemed to grow larger, if that was possible for a salarian.

Shiana turned back toward the hole in the deck and found herself staring at something that seemed to have been tailor-made to fit the depths of her worst nightmares.

**-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!**

_**The xenomorph has arrived! **_

_**For people who want to have some visual concepts: I'm thinking of a cross between Aliens and Starship Troopers (1997).  
The Anzio is basically a smaller version of the Roger Young, half warship, half troop transport. Sort of a space version of today's Littoral Combat Ship. The DR-4 Viking dropships used to land the soldiers in Starship Troopers seemed to be modular, with the cargo hold as a separate unit hanging under the shuttle. In my story the marines use the same kind of vehicle, but with a different cargo unit, which has a docking collar.  
I'm name-dropping the Cheyenne dropship from Aliens (I loved that design), but it's the wrong tool for this job, which is why it's not used here. If I get around to my next story, which will involve planetary deployment, the Cheyennes will be along for the ride.  
The Calypso is a lot older than the Anzio and would be similar to the Nostromo in terms of general design.**_

* * *

_**I'm sorry my characters spend so much time debating the first-contact problems, but this is a bit of a pet peeve for me. I can accept that aliens can see in the same wavelengths we do and speak at the same sound frequencies. That kind of makes sense, if you assume that they evolved on similar planets around similar stars, but using the same electronics? We tend to forget it, but using binary is just a choice, for that matter digital over analogue is just a choice. And that is just the beginning. In most Official SciFi universes, everybody seems to be magically using the same communication protocols. When you consider that it takes me an hour to connect my computer to the printer and those are actually designed to communicate... Quite often, this is handwaved by saying that a species sends a 'first contact package', which includes 'language files'. Great, but how is anybody going to open these files, when they cannot even read ASCII?  
**_

_**Language itself is, of course, a similar problem. I understand why Star Trek introduced the universal translator. There was no way to make the show work otherwise. Still, the reality is completely different. With enough material, a computer can recognize patterns (we can do that today for the calls of certain bird species), but that doesn't mean you actually know the meaning. In the last chapter, Liara, as an archaeologist, saw the repetitive pattern of changing symbols and recognized them for what they were: numbers. But she didn't know what they meant. (N.B. Even that only works for a system based on a floating point. She'd have had a real problem if humans had been using Roman numbers!) Then came the news that some kind of ship was on the way and Shiana made the connection. Even so, she couldn't tell the difference between time and distance, and she couldn't be sure of her conclusions. For the more complicated case of words and sentences the situation is even worse. For example: suppose a human and an alien are trying to communicate and the human asks: "Do you want war, or peace?" A legitimate question, but what does the alien hear? Given enough material for analysis, his computer will tell him, based on voice patterns and the sequence of the words that it is a question, and that he is offered a choice between two possibilities: war and peace. But without context, he has no idea what either choice means. That's fun! He has a fifty percent chance of getting it right. If he does, he has no idea what the question was, or what he answered and if he answers wrong he'll never know why he suddenly took a bullet to the face. Not to mention, that the computer may have made a small error and the human might actually have asked if he wanted a copy of Tolstoy's War and Peace.  
Of course, a mind-meld type event gets around this, though I'm not sure how that would actually work, considering that people think in their own language. Once everybody is on the same ship that might actually be possible, if it works through a helmet. On the other hand, grabbing a heavily armed stranger by the head and telling him to 'embrace eternity' while your eyes change colour doesn't sound like a great idea, especially in a tense situation.  
As part of this theme I threw in the prime numbers. They appear in a lot in first-contact stories, but what are they actually supposed to mean? They serve very little purpose. Humans may be fascinated by that kind of thing, but perhaps aliens just don't care.**_

_**Alright, that is enough about that, I didn't mean to rant. Most SciFi stories tend to gloss over all these problems for the sake of keeping the story going and I understand that just fine. It's very difficult to make anything happen without some basic communications. At first I thought I'd need the aliens to actually cut though the hull to get on board the Calypso, before I hit on the idea of having instructions in pictograms next to the airlock. Of course, that begs the question how they planned to use the airlock without knowing about those pictograms. I suppose they thought that they had plenty of time and were confident that they would eventually figure it out.  
Normally I'm happy to suspend disbelieve in these situations, though I think Star Trek made communications a bit too easy. In fact, one thing I actually liked about the first season of Enterprise is that they occasionally ran into trouble due to bad translations. The TNG episode Darmok was another good example: the translation worked fine, but they still couldn't understand each other. Still, I thought it would be interesting to go the other way; to actually explore this and try to see if reasonable people can manage to get through all the barriers without killing each other. It may also help me in the future. I have some ideas for a story about the first contact war, which, in my universe, would actually be breaking out even as these events are unfolding. I hope to find a way to make the start of that war look like a genuine misunderstanding, rather than trigger-happy turians shooting at everything that moves.  
**_

* * *

_**As always, thanks for favourite/follow/reviews. I'm glad you like the story so far. **_

**_Midweekcomic13: I thought about hybernation, but it isn't necessary in this case. The ship is only moving within a solar system. That is basically what the Auriga did in Alien Resurrection and that only took a few hours. Also, in this story, the human propulsion systems are at least somewhat comparable to the ME universe. The idea in the background is that the space-jockey's ship had ME type technology and humans have been reverse engineering it, as an alternative to having a prothean library on Mars. I never understood why Weyland-Yutani was so obsessed with the xenomorph but seemed to completely ignore the highly advanced space ship that was just lying around on LV-426, so now I can fill in that plot hole as well._ **


	7. Chapter 6: Alien vs Alien

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

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**USCSS Calypso**

Asari lived a long time. Barring injury or illness, Shiana could easily expect to live another six or seven centuries, though, at this moment, that seemed to have become an unlikely prospect. Even so, Shiana knew that no matter how long she lived, she would never forget the creature that now stood before her. It wasn't the fact that it was ugly. Krogan were ugly; so were Vorcha. For that matter, she had never found Batarians or Elcor particularly attractive. This creature was far worse than merely ugly. It was pure menace. Dark green, almost black, it was about the size of an asari, though its crouching posture made it difficult to be sure, with a a wiry, almost skeletal frame that seemed encased in some sort of natural armour. The arms were long enough to reach the ground and it had a long tail, covered in spikes. However, the most terrifying part of the creature was its head: a large, smooth, armoured dome that seemed to lack any kind of features. Seemed, because even as that thought went through her mind, the creature opened its mouth and showed that it had at least one very clear feature: teeth; and more teeth and behind those, yet more teeth.  
For one terrifying moment Shiana stood as frozen, while her mind tried to comprehend the nightmare creature in front of her. It took a step forward, its tail lashing back and forth. The movement broke the spell and Shiana felt the surge of power flowing through her body, as, more on instinct than by design, she struck with her biotics.  
The blueish glow of her warp rippled over the creature. It staggered back, snarling, and the inner set of teeth suddenly snapped forward, protruding far out of the drooling mouth. A moment later it had recovered. Although the warp might have stunned it for a moment, it was clear, that the thing would not be so easily defeated.  
Shiana raised her submachinegun. She had never been a particularly powerful biotic and usually put more trust in weapons to do the fighting for her. The first burst hit the creature dead centre and she could see a green-yellowish fluid welling up from the wounds.

_I can hurt it! If I can hurt it, I can kill_-

The creature twisted sideways, a nearly impossibe feat in the narrow corridor, its claws grappling the wall and ceiling as it twisted to avoid the bullets and Shiana felt her despair return. Her Tempest submachinegun was designed for extremely rapid fire to wear down enemy shields and biotic barriers. It was difficult to control on long bursts and the individual bullets didn't do much damage.

_I'm not going to make it. It's too fast. It-_

The creature jumped forward with terrifying speed-  
-only to to stop in mid-jump as a biotic singularity flared up in the middle of the corridor. Looking over her shoulder, Shiana saw Liara T'Soni covered in the blue glow of her biotics. Sanity finally returned and Shiana dropped to one knee to give her two remaining teammates a clear field of fire.

"Shoot it! Just Shoot!"

The withering fire from a submachinegun and two heavy pistols tore into the creature, even as it struggled frantically to fight free of the singularity. It shrieked as the bullets ripped through its head and torso. For a moment, it seemed as though it might actually survive long enough to break free, but, just as the singularity faded, the creature's bullet-riddled carcass fell to the deck, still twitching.

"By the goddess, what-"

A hissing noise interrupted T'Soni's shaking voice. Steam rose from the area around the corps. Where the deck had been splattered with the creature's blood, the plating, already buckled by the singularity, seemed to melt and before the trio's unbelieving eyes, the corpse started to sag through the deck.

_Acid! That thing bleeds acid!_

"Fascinating." Mordin Solus pushed passed her to get a better look at the corpse. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. For once the salarian seemed at a loss for words.

"Alright, that's enough. Back to crew compartment. Now!"

* * *

_**UMS Anzio**_

Anderson took his seat aboard the Viking dropship and placed his personal weapon in the holding clamps next to his seat. He patted it affectionately. The new Lacrima 99 assault rifle had come into service quite recently, replacing the ubiquitous M41 series that had served the Colonial Marines for the better part of a century and was still in use among many local militias. Unlike many other weapon systems from that era, which had been selected more for their potential to fill the coffers of various corporations than their battlefield performance, the M41 had actually been a popular weapon, and no-one had been in a hurry to replace it. Still, by now even most die-hards had been won over. Like its predecessor, the Lacrima combined an assault rifle with a grenade launcher. However, their position had been reversed, with the grenade launcher mounted above the rifle. With the grenades fed from a bullpup-style magazine, this allowed for a much longer barrel, improving the accuracy of the grenades. Moreover, the grenades themselves had been redesigned, allowing for both direct and indirect fire as well as a variety of payloads. The assault rifle had a shorter barrel, of course, but that was acceptable, and specialized ammunition made up for the reduction in firepower. That thought reminded him:

"Everyone! Final check. Make sure that you have frangible rounds only. I don't want some idiot firing armour-piercing rounds inside a spaceship. We all have to die sometime, but I'd rather it wasn't through stupidity."

There was some laughter, but it sounded strained.

_Zim is right. They are too tense. One wrong move and this will end in a bloodbath._

Anderson tried again.

"Everybody ready to meet the little green men? Come on, we're about to make history. You can at least pretend to be enthusiastic. Think of the stories you'll be telling your grandchildren."

"Hey, maybe they're actually hot, green, space-babes!"

_Thank god for O'Connor, you can always trust him to lighten the mood._

"What did I say about watching cheap SciFi, O'Connor?"

"That it will rot my brain, sir."

"I guess my warning came too late."

This time the laughter appeared a bit more relaxed.  
By now all of he marines were seated. Even the machinegunners had manage to stow away their heavy smartguns, an especially awkward task in the cramped confines of the shuttle. That only left the civilian.  
Anderson took a look at Vickers, clearly recognizable in her civilian style environmental suit. She had put her briefcase in a locker and was just now sitting down, struggling to secure her shotgun. Unfortunately, it had not been designed to fit in the standard clamps. It was a short weapon with a heavy barrel and a drum magazine behind the pistol grip. Compact and capable of rapid fire it could do a lot of damage in close quarters, making it ideal for this kind of mission. Finally, Vickers managed to get it properly secured.  
Anderson took one final look around, then he activated his comm.

"Pilot, this is Anderson. Inform the captain, we're ready to deploy."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

The boarding team, what was left of it, had returned to the bridge.

"Was it... Do you think it was part of the crew?"

Shiana looked at T'Soni. The younger Asari seemed to have recovered somewhat and there was no denying that, terrified or not, she had done more than her share during the confrontation in the corridor. Perhaps she was one of those people who performed best when under pressure. Her question was also extremely valid. Unfortunately, it was not easy to answer.

"I don't know. It seemed more like an animal to me, but then again, so do a lot of Vorcha. Solus?"

The salarian, too, seemed to have recovered, and it was clear that he had been pondering the implications of the creature's appearance.

"Unlikely. Species clearly different from corpse. Claws too large for instruments on bridge. Tail: awkard for chairs. Also, highly evolved predator, highly specialised. Unlikely to become tooluser." He considered for a moment. "Might be pet, or trained to fight, like Varren. Could be very effective, if properly deployed. On the other hand, might be what killed crewmember. Not sure about method, but certainly seemed capable."

Shiana had to agree, still...

"Even if it's a trained animal, I don't think I want to meet anyone, who can train that thing. It makes Varren look positively benign." The Tuchanka born predators were commonly found among Krogan mercenary groups, both as an extension of the fighting force, and as a source of entertainment for the krogan, who made a sport of betting on Varren fights. Still, they were known to occasionally display a form of affection for their owners. This creature, on the other hand... She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to purge her memory of the image of the hideous thing they had just encountered. "I think we know what happened to Donal and V'Rini. That means that there are probably more of these things on board. We cannot risk the corridor again. If another one, or, goddess forbid, more than one, catch us in such a cramped space... I'll contact Lucinus. Have him take off and match position with one of the airlocks on this side of the ship. Even if he cannot properly dock, we can open the airlock from the inside and jump to the shuttle. "

She sighed.

"We have to accept that Moryala, Donal and V'Rini may be gone. That thing didn't look like it was the type to take prisoners. In any case, there is nothing we can do for them from here. Once we're back aboard Light of Dawn, we'll consider out options. Whatever that thing was, like you said, Solus: it didn't look like a tooluser, so a properly equipped commando team should be able to handle them, as long as we can keep them at a distance."

Het omnitool chimed as it registered a incoming message.

"Yes?"

"Captain?" It was Lucinus. "Message from officer Levarn, ma'am. It looks like you're about to have company. There are two large shuttlecraft underway from the new ship."

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**It's ME aliens 1, xenomorph 3.  
I tried to strike a balance between ME style fighting and the way xenomorphs work in both the Alien movies and the video games. Singularity, followed by lots of gunfire, seemed a good tactic, because it both neutralises the chestburster's speed and contains the splatter from the acid. Of course, Liara didn't know about the acid in advance, but I figured that a singularity was the logical thing to do for someone who is absolutely terrified, and desperate to keep the creature from coming any closer. Besides, they've already lost half of their boarding team. They deserved a break, so I let them find out about the acid the easy way.**

**I'm using real life prototypes for the human guns. Anderson's assault rifle is basically the XM29 OICW (I borrowed the Lacrima name from Alien Resurrection), while Vickers' shotgun is a Pancor Jackhammer Mark 3 (It looks futuristic and actually resembles ME shotguns a bit). Still looking for a good image for a replacement of the smartguns. The Tempest submachinegun is, of course, from ME2/ME3. I didn't identify the pistols used by Liara and Mordin, but those would be Predators.**

* * *

**Once again, thanks for your comments. **

**As several people suggested, using images would indeed be the best way to handle first contact (assuming the aliens have eyes). Of course, you still have to overcome electronic problems unless you actually meet in person. That's why Levarn is working on establishing a simple bit-map configuration that both sides could read. If the humans can figure that part out, it will make things easier. Still, he will have to broadcast the bitmaps basically in Morse-code. That may work for simple images, but for anything more detailed, you need something better: AM/FM, broadband, anything to get more information across. That means they have to match the two systems somehow.  
Vickers is actually carrying a laptop in her suitcase with a number of presentations to show to the aliens once she is aboard the Calypso. Assuming, of course, that they don't get shot during the boarding action.**

**MEEKVERSEFAN2.0: I don't think krogan would be completely immune to the facehuggers, but they would represent a serious challenge. If you restrained the Krogan, the facehugger should be able to implant the embryo. Under normal conditions the size of a krogan's head might be a problem, since the facehugger couldn't cover it completely. Also, I think a Krogan would be strong enough to rip the facehugger off, and tough enough to survive that procedure. After all, Ripley managed it in Alien Resurrection and I don't think she was as strong as a krogan, even with the alien DNA in her system. Cutting off a krogan's airflow wouldn't kill them any time soon (In ME2 Wrex seemed to consider being spaced survivable.) So, I guess the outcome would mainly depend on whether the facehugger can put the krogan in a coma in time to avoid being torn apart.  
Interesting idea, though. I shudder to think what a krogan based xenomorph would be like.**


	8. Chapter 7: First impressions

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

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**USM Anzio**

"They didn't try to interfere with the shuttles. I suppose that's a good thing," captain Ramirez remarked to no one in particular.

Around him the combat operations centre had become a veritable beehive of activity as the command staff of the Anzio monitored both the flight of the shuttles, which were rapidly approaching the Calypso, and the new transmission that was being broadcast by the alien ship. Initially it had seemed as though the aliens had simply mimicked the Anzio's signal, repeating the powers of two in pulses of its carrier wave. However, the aliens had not stopped there. After a moment's pause they had switched to a new pattern. So far, there seemed to be no sign of repetition in this pattern and technicians aboard the Anzio were trying to analyze the data.

Inside the Virtual Reality environment created by her helmet, petty-officer Nika watched as the datastream took shape after shape, depending on her visualization choices. She had been working non-stop for over an hour, longer than was advisable for VR-duty. However, she had requested that she be allowed to stay on duty for the duration of the first contact and the captain had readily accepted. The petite, almost childlike blonde, who at first glance seemed woefully out of place onboard a warship, was by far the best computer-analyst on the Anzio.

_Linear 1-D representation: useless. Linegraph produces no match. Wait, there that's the starting sequence again. They're repeating_. _Total number of data points 16384. That is... 128 squared. Moving to 2-D representation... Just high and low... Represent as black and white... There! It's a line drawing. Looks like some kind of bipedal...  
_

"Sir, analysis complete!" She couldn't hide her excitement. She'd outpaced the ship's computers... again. "It's a drawing. Moving it to the screen, now."

Captain Ramirez looked at the image that appeared on one of the large screens on the wall.

"You've got to be kidding me."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

"We have a serious problem. The aliens will be here within minutes. I assume they'll board on this side of the ship, rather than using the cargo doors. That means they'll be coming in right on top of us. That is not a good scenario for first contact. Levarn is having some success with establishing communications, but he still has a long way to go and we've just run out of time. They seem to be be willing to talk. That's a good sign. They also seem to be unwilling to wait. That's not so good." Shiana looked around. "This bridge is too cramped. I want to be somewhere open, where we can see each other clearly. Suggestions?"

Liara T'Soni spoke up, somewhat hesitantly. "Captain.., there was this area, a few doors down the corridor. It looked to be some kind of kitchen. It was well lit and there seemed to be extra room for the crew to sit."

"Good. That's where we'll wait. Keep your weapons holstered and make sure they can see your hands. T'soni, no biotics, not unless you have too."

"Captain-"

"I mean it. We don't know if these people even know what biotics are. If they do, they'll see it as a threat, if not they might panic."

Shiana did her best to keep her voice relaxed to hide her increasing agitation from the two junior team members.

"Best case scenario: They recognize the situation and know how to deal with it. If they know these creatures and consider them hostile, they may have an efficient way to get rid of them. If that's the case all we have to do is remain calm. Given an opportunity, we may be able to open communications. Worst case..., well, I guess we all know what the worst case scenario is."

"Might be upset at trespassing," Solus clearly felt the need to spell it out. "Might be upset about killing of beloved pet. Might simply feel that creatures are in need of food."

"Yes, that would probably qualify as a worst case scenario," T'Soni muttered.

"Indeed! So, let's try to make sure that it doesn't happen."

* * *

**Viking dropship on approach to USCSS Calypso**

"Ten minutes to arrival" The voice of the pilot cut through the silence. Anderson looked at the crewchief who was standing by, ready to manipulate the docking collar.

"Ready to deploy sir," the man said. "I have the schematics for the airlock controls. The moment the collar is secured, I'll override the safeties and blow the doors on both ends."

The cargo modules attached to the two dropships had been specifically designed for this type of mission. Their docking collars had been strengthened to handle pressure variations. This allowed the marines to forego the normal use of an airlock. Instead of having to enter the airlock and waiting for it to cycle (an extremely vulnerable moment for a boarding team) they would be able to open both the inner and outer doors at once, giving the marines direct access to the ship's interior.

"Alright marines, you heard it. Seal your helmets and keep them sealed until further notice. Corporal Ishmael?"

Ishmael would lead the first entry from this shuttle. Anderson would follow with the rest of the squad.

"Ready to go, sir."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

Shiana forced herself to remain still as they waited in the kitchen area. Under other circumstances, this would have been the crowning moment of her career. Every officer in the survey fleet dreamed of making first contact with an intelligent species, but only a handful were so lucky as to experience it. Unfortunately, these were not 'other circumstances' and as it was, she could only hope that they would find a way to survive the next few moments.

CA-CLANCK!

The noise echoed though the ship as the shuttles slammed into the airlocks on either side of the hull. Shiana waited, expecting a delay as the aliens used the airlocks. Instead, there was a sharp hissing noise of escaping air. The next moment, the inner doors of the airlocks flew open and suddenly the corridors were filled with movement and noise.

* * *

**Viking dropship  
**

"GO, GO!" Anderson could hear sergeant Zim's voice over the open comm channel as the NCO personally led the first boarding team. Simultaneously, corporal Ishmael led a similar force from Anderson's own dropship. Running footsteps echoed through the corridors as the marines secured the crew quarters. Then, the voices of the marines.

"Corridor, secured!"

"Bridge, secured!"

"Sleeping room, secured!"

"Storage, secured, one corpse!"

"Kitchen! Three unknowns!"

Anderson and Vickers shared a look. This was the moment they had dreaded and Anderson braced himself for the sound of gunfire to tell him that first contact had turned into a disaster. Instead, there was a moment of silence. Then came a voice.**  
**

"You've got to be kidding me," that was sergeant Zim.

"What?!"

"Sir, I think you'd better see for yourself. I.., I don't think you would believe me if I told you."

"Very well, sergeant, I'm on my way. Ms. Vickers, wait here until I call."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

The aliens had swarmed over the ship, quickly occupying every room. Like the corpse that they had found earlier, their bodies seemed remarkably like asari, though generally taller and heavier. Unfortunately, that was all Shiana could observe. The new arrivals were uniformly dressed in some sort of body armour and, unlike her own people, they wore helmets that completely obscured their faces.  
What was clear, was that they were exceedingly well armed. Every one of them seemed to carry both a pistol and some kind of assault rifle. The weapons themselves were obviously different from the ones in use in citadel space. Shiana would have been quite fascinated, if it were not for the fact that several of them were currently pointed at her and her team.

* * *

**USM Anzio**

"Captain, signal from lieutenant Anderson."

Captain Ramirez tore his gaze away from the images before him. "Put him on speaker."

A moment later, Anderson's voice came over the loudspeakers. "I repeat, this is lieutenant Anderson, calling Anzio."

"Anderson, this is captain Ramirez? What is going on, lieutenant?"

"Captain, we've secured the crew compartment of the Calypso. No casualties."

Ramirez relaxed slightly. "What is the situation on board, lieutenant?"

"No xenomorphs found, sir, but we have one dead body. Looks like he got ripped open by a chestburster. We have also detained three non-humans, sir. No resistance."

"I see." Ramirez looked back toward the images they had received from the alien vessel. By now there were three, simple line-drawings showing bipedal figures. "Tell me, lieutenant. What do our new aquaintances look like?"

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

Anderson looked at the three creatures standing before him in the Calypso's mess hall and tried to find the correct words.

"I'm not sure how to say this, captain. To be honest, I don't think you'll believe me."

"Lieutenant we just received some images from the alien ship. You'd be surprised what I'm willing to believe right now." Ramirez' voice sounded wry.

"Well, sir, let's just say..., I think we owe several generations of cheap science fiction writers an apology. I have a guy here, who looks like his ancestors crashed in Roswell, and the other two... Honestly sir, 'hot, blue, space-chicks' seems to be the only description that does them justice."

"Wait a second," Ramirez answered. "They're blue?!"

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**Nika was a character from TekWar. Since she was a hacker, it seemed fitting to have her use the equipment that I borrowed from the same series.  
**

* * *

**Once again thanks for all the comments. **

**RandomReader: You're right. A spaceship is, of course, a bad place for any kind of firefight and armour-piercing bullets are certainly a bad idea on board. That's why I had Anderson load the assault rifles with frangibles instead. The problem of over-penetration and basically wasting all the energy outside the target is another issue. Still, the ME universe uses these weapons against humanoid targets, so they should be reasonably effective against a xenomorph. I agree that using grenades inside a spaceship is a very bad idea, both because of the tight quarters and because you might accidentally damage something crucial. However, you could use the grenade launcher (20-30 mm) on the assault rifle to launch a solid metal slug, rather than a grenade; like a rifled slug from a shotgun. That should ruin the day of any xenomorph. **

**MEEKVERSEFAN2.0: I think elcor have mouths, or something like it. They have to absorb food somehow. Like krogan their size would be a problem for the facehugger though. From the events of Alien it would seem that the facehugger can get through a helmet (how else did Kane get infected?) So the suits of quarrians and volus would not protect them. A volus seems to explode if his suit is compromised, so that would be a problem, but a volus in his natural environment would be vulnerable (assuming that the xenomorph can survive there.) Vorcha are an interesting problem. Would their bodies reject the chestburster foetus, or would they adapt to having a xenomorph inside? And if they adapt, what form would it take? Right now I'm not sure how to handle it. I'll try to think of a solution. Alternatively, the xenomorph may be too much to handle****** even for a Vorcha's immune system**.  
**


	9. Chapter 8: What happened on the Calypso

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

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**USM Anzio**

"-and the other is grey. I see. Thank you, lieutenant. By the way, if you see someone who looks like a cross between a chicken and a dinosaur, let me know. I'd love to know what colour they are. Anzio, out"

Captain Ramirez looked back at the screen that showed three images of bipedal creatures. Once the Anzio had shown that they understood what the aliens were trying to convey, the aliens had broadcast a new set of images, this time at much higher resolution. It had taken some time before those images had been transmitted through the 'blinking' method, as the crew was now calling it, but between the drawings and lieutenant Anderson's report, they now had a fair idea what the aliens looked like.

"Alright, everybody. Next step: repeat the image of a human, same resolution as they are using, but add the word human in letters at the bottom." He turned toward P.O. Nika, who was still inside the virtual reality environment. "Petty officer Nika, you are relieved. You are off-duty for at least eight hours, but keep an open comm-link. It looks like we'll be quite busy for the forseeable future. In the mean time, we'll set up a link with he Calypso's central computer and see what we can learn from it."

P.O. Nika took off her VR helmet and blinked several times as her eyes tried to forcus on the real world around her. She'd been in the VR environment, non-stop, for nearly three hours, more than twice the recommended maximum time. It would take her a while to re-adjust.

"Thank you, sir." She stood up, but had to steady herself on the armrest of her chair as the room seemed to spin around her.

"Just get some rest, petty-officer."

Ramirez turned back to the screens.

"Now, people. I want ideas. We need more bandwith and we need audio contact. Go back to the first-contact protocols and see what you can find. There has to be a way to explain it to these folks."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

Anderson forced himself to stop staring at the aliens and looked at Zim.

"Alright, sergeant, with that out of the way; what's the situation?"

The platoon-sergeant seemed to have recovered his usual professionalism.

"Entire crew-area is secure, sir. Well, as secure as we can make it. We have two smart guns covering the central corridor and two-men watches in each room. No sign of hostile activity so far. One dead body in the storage room. Looks like a chestburster, but no sign of the creature. Rutgers and Stavich are working on the computer. They're trying to link it with the Anzio, but they're having some trouble with the connection. Life-support seems functional, but I guess Zhong should bring you up to date on that.  
Anderson took another quick look at the three aliens, then turned to corporal Zhong, the squad medic, who had just entered the mess hall.

"What is the situation with life-support, corporal?"

Like Anderson, Zhong seemed unable to look away from the three unknown creatures, but he answered readily enough. "Pretty good, sir. I double checked, both with the ship's computer and our own instruments. Everything seems fine. Atmosphere is normal. No sign of contaminants. Temperature is still a bit low, but rising. As far as I can tell, we can open our helmets. With..., these..., he pointed at the aliens. "with them around, I wouldn't recommend it normally, but they seems all suited up, so even if something about them poses a threat, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Very well." Anderson switched his communicator to the squad-wide circuit.

"Marines, listen up. The atmosphere aboard has been declared breathable. Switch your suits to use outside air to conserve your supply, but keep your helmets on for now. You know, just in case something tries to hug your face."

That drew a few laughs.

"Ms. Vickers, you're cleared to come to the mess hall and set up your show for our new friends. Everybody else, stay sharp, check your motion scanners. I don't want any surprises. You notice anything you don't recognize or don't understand, you check in with sergeant Zim, or myself. "

Anderson turned back to Zhong.

"Corporal, let's see about that corps."

With a final look at the three aliens, they left the mess hall.

The corpse was lying in one of the storage compartments beneath the main deck, guarded by corporal Ishmael and one of his marines. Contrary to Anderson's expectations, it was in remarkably good condition, especially for someone who must have been dead for several decades. It had a hole, big enough to fit a man's fist, in the ribcage.

"No need to ask how he died."

"No, sir," Zhong lowered himself into the storage compartment. "Classic case of death by chestburster."

"Poor bastard," Ishmael said. "What do you think, sir, did they lock him in here when they realized he had been implanted?"

"Possibly." Anderson thought it over for a moment. "No, if they had any sense they would have spaced him the moment they found out. More likely, this guy locked himself in here. Might even have been a stowaway; and the crew never knew he was on board." He looked at Zhong, who was still checking the surprisingly well-preserved body. "This guy has been dead for years. How come the body hasn't decomposed."

The medic shrugged.

"Tough to say. The conditions on board these ships could get pretty weird during FTL travel. Low temperatures, little humidity. Also, these ships used to run heavy decontamination routines during FTL. Wouldn't do to have the crew wake up and the ship is covered in fungus, or overrun by cockroaches. Perhaps that killed the bacteria. Don't worry, though. Now that we're back at room temperature, he'll start smelling soon enough."

"Great!"

Zhong looked up through the hatch. "Lock has been melted by acid. Smart critter. Once it was out, it must have bashed against the hatch to get out. Once the blood started melting things, it knew it was on to a good thing and kept going."

"Nobody said they were stupid. Still, that is only one. There must have been about half a dozen crew, at least, and on a ship like this, they would have been armed. Once they knew it was on board, they could have hunted it down."

"What about the eggs in the cargo hold, sir? We've never figured out how these things communicate. If it found the eggs, it could have gotten itself some reinforcements pretty quickly. If it could grab one or two crew members alive, the odds would be a lot less favourable."

A new voice came over the comm-circuit, interrupting the conversation.

"Lieutenant? Sir, this is Stavich, on the bridge. Sir, we fixed the problem with the main computer. Linking to the Anzio, now."

* * *

**USM Anzio  
**

"Sir, we have a connection to the Calypso's main computer. It seems like they completely disconnected the memory storage from he outside link, but the marines have improvised a by-pass."

Ramirez walked over to the screen.

"Are the navigation logs up-to-date?"

"Yes sir, scrolling back to last known contact... I have it. Departure from Sanctum. Date matches the information from Weyland-Yutani. Navigational instructions match as well. All systems operational. They plotted the course correctly and activated the tachyon shunt, but they never went into hybernation."

"I think we can guess why."

"Yes, sir. When they reached their destination, the computer alerted the crew, but ..."

"But there was nobody left."

"No sir, so the ship just kept going. Sir, this doesn't make a great deal of sense," the tech remarked. "Wouldn't the computer have dropped the ship out of FTL automatically?"

"No," Ramirez sighed. "It was one of those weird rules governing the use of automation. Unless there was an emergency, every change in the ship's flight had to be done by hand. It was something the labour-unions negotiated to prevent the corporations from moving to fully automated ships. Apparently, the complete absence of a living crew didn't qualify as an emergency. Someone may have messed with the software, that happened a lot on those old ships. Or perhaps the computer was aware of the xenomorphs moving around and counted them as crew members."

"I understand, sir. In any case, the ship just kept going until fuel reached a critical level. That overruled everything. They dropped out of FTL. But by then, they were outside of colonized space. The computer seems to have activated some kind of back-up protocol. That calculated a trajectory for the nearest star system, gave a short burst of thrust, and let the ship coast until it was close enough to a planet to enter orbit. Unfortunately, at sub-light, it took years to get here, but the computer didn't care about that."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

Not for the first time, Shiana wished that the unknown aliens had chosen to use open helmets, rather than the face-covering models they apparently preferred. Reading the facial expressions of another species would be difficult at best, but being stared at by faceless masks was becoming quite unnerving. Still, so far things weren't going too badly. There was obviously a lot going on, but after the initial boarding, everything seemed to have calmed down. The aliens were busy all over the ship, searching rooms and activating equipment that they were clearly familiar with. The somewhat more relaxed atmosphere was definitely an improvement. Furthermore, nobody had tried to touch them and the guns were no longer pointing directly at them. All good signs. Now, if they could just try to communicate...  
There was some motion at the door and another alien, dressed differently from the rest entered. Shiana heard Liara T'Soni gasp and, from the corner of her eye notice that Mordin Solus was blinking rapidly, the closest his species came to showing astonishment. She could hardly blame either of them. Unlike the others who had been dressed in some kind of drab-coloured body armour, the newcomer wore a brightly coloured environmental suit and, most importantly, a helmet made of some clear material that exposed her entire face. The effect was astonishing.  
The feeling seemed to be mutual, for the alien stopped as if frozen the moment her gaze fell on Shiana and, if the widening of her eyes was any indication at all, seemed to have some trouble believing what she was seeing. Shiana could sympathize. The corpse they had found earlier had seemed to resemble an asari, but seeing the face of a living one took it to a whole new level. Unlike any asari, the alien had a white-pink coloured skin and its head seemed to be covered with some kind of bright-yellow fur that was tied away from its face, but other than that the facial structure was, to all intents and purposes, that of an asari. If this being covered the top of its head and painted its face blue, it could walk around on any asari planet without drawing attention to itself.  
For several moments they simply stared at one another, then the alien seemed to recover somewhat. It walked over to the central table put down the object it had been carrying, folded it open, and then turned it so that Shiana and her companions could see inside.

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**A bit of an exposition chapter, but I wanted to get some of that stuff out of the way before moving on. Communciations are still tough but improving. Next time: how to explain to aliens that having a crab land on your face leads to something bursting out of your chest.  
**

* * *

**As always, I'm very grateful for all the comments I've recieved. **

**I will eventually introduce some ME-alien born xenomorphs, but it may take me a while. I'm still trying to work out a set of rules for what those things can/cannot do. It's tough to come up with something self-consistent, without creating creatures that would just curb-stomp everything. An asari-xenomorph combo could be an insanely powerful enemy. We saw in the Citadel DLC that a varren from Thessia could do basic biotic attacks even without a biotic amp. If the xenomorph can do the same... Of course, I could rule that it doesn't have biotics, but then it would just be a copy of a human-xenomorph with a slightly different skull. Besides, I really like the idea. I just need to figure out what the limitations are.  
**

**koper: Don't worry I'm not going to use a mind-meld. For one thing, it would feel like cheating after all the effort I put into showing that first contact is difficult. Also, there are a lot of practical problems: How does it even work? Our thoughts are still in our own language, so there is no common frame of reference. At most I would expect emotions to come through (assuming that two races have comparable emotions.) What about the helmets? Under the circumstances there is no need to take them off and good reasons to keep them on. Finally, even if it could work, it is just too big a risk. If Shiana grabs Vicker's head and they both seem to zone out for a while it would spook everybody. Shiana is much too cautious to risk that.  
**


	10. Chapter 9: Should stay on the Calypso

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox.**

**Made an adjustment at the suggestion of koper. I had overstated the survival time for humans in space.**

**A/N Although communications are improving, there are still two groups of people speaking fundamentally different languages. I found that I had trouble avoiding confusion as to who could actually understand each other, so for convenience in scenes that contain bot ME aliens and humans, I'm using "..." for human language and [[...]] for the ME galactic standard.**

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**USCSS Calypso'**

Meredith Vickers kept her eyes on the three aliens as she activated her computer and called up the first of the preparations she had prepared. The whole experience was somewhat surreal. She had tried to refrain from making too many assumptions in advance as to the nature of the aliens. Still, it had been almost impossible not to think in terms of a a more or less humanoid appearance. Centuries of science fiction shows and movies that had imprinted themselves on human culture were not so easy to overcome. Besides, there was some evidence that evolution favoured that particular shape. The pilot of the alien ship on LV-426 had been much bigger, of course, but had still seemed to have the same general body structure as a human being; and in their own way even the xenomorphs were somewhat humanoid. However, she had not expected to see an alien, who seemed to have walked out of an old science-fiction story, let alone two distinctly feminine-looking creatures that appeared to have escaped fom the horny fantasies of some teenage boy.  
Still, in many ways it might be a good thing. Surely, the more they had in common, the easier it would be to establish some sort of communication. At the very least, these aliens had eyes, which meant she hadn't been wasting her time putting the presentations together.

-o-o-o-

Shiana looked inside the flat bag that the alien had placed on the table. When folded open, the upper part appeared to be a screen, similar to the ones on the bridge of the ship. The lower part contained a control panel. The alien quickly pressed several buttons and the screen came to life.

[[Some sort of omnitool? Visual presentation?]] Mordin Solus wondered out loud. [[Clearly prepared for first contact. Hopeful sign. Wouldn't have bothered if intentions hostile.]]

[[Hopeful, yes,]] Shiana said. [[Still, it will only be of limited use, unless...]]

Slowly, keeping her hands clearly in sight, Shiana reached for her omnitool and activated it, resulting in a sudden flash of light as the haptic interface appeared. Immediately, several of the aliens raised their weapons. Shiana, carefully refraining from any sudden movement, she pointed at the alien's screen. Then at her omnitool. Then, back at the screen.

-o-o-o-

Vicker observed the alien's movements carefully. The sudden light show was a bit startling, but she -at least that was how her mind instinctively classified the alien- didn't seem to intend any harm.

Vickers raised a hand. "Some sort of holographic interface. Calm down everyone. It looks like she's activated some sort of instrument. Let's give these people the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's harmless until proven otherwise."

"Could she be trying to hack your computer?" Sergeant Zim asked.

She shrugged. "Possibly, but if so, she isn't being very subtle about it; and I don't see how that could work without knowledge of our technology. Anyway, she's welcome to try. I removed all sensitive information before we boarded. Most likely, she's attempting to record what I'm showing, or wants to apply some sort of analysis. There is really no way to tell, but let's not assume the worst."

-o-o-o-

[[Captain.]] Shiana saw that T'Soni had nearly reached for her own gun when she saw the reaction of the aliens. [[What...?]]

[[If we're the only ones to see this package it won't help Levarn and the others. But, if I can establish a connection, they can correlate it with what they're receiving. Besides, if something goes wrong, they'll know it right away.]] Still moving slowly and deliberately, so as not to startle anyone, she activated her communicator.

[[Lucinus?]]

[[Yes Captain.]]

[[We're in contact and the aliens seem to have brought some sort of first-contact package. Pass my signal through to the Light of Dawn. I want them so see and hear everything that's happening. Don't let them send anything back for now. Things are a bit tense, here.]]

The screen now showed an image of a bipedal creature. It resembled the aliens around them in general shape, but without weapons or an environmental suit. beneath it was a line of five symbols. The alien who had activated the device pointed at the image, pointed at itself then traced a finger along the symbols.

"Human," it said.

Shiana hesitated a moment, then pointed at herself, then at T'Soni

[[Asari,]] she said.

At Solus.

[[Salarian]]

* * *

**Council survey vessel Light of Dawn.**

"Mr. Levarn, we're receiving a message from the captain. She's keeping an open channel from her omnitool. Both visual and audio. It seems that she is communicating with the aliens."

Levarn blinked rapidly. So far first contact had proceeded better than expected, considering the rather unusual circumstances. Still, it was going very slow and they were coming up against the practical limits of the signal 'on-off' approach. Somehow they had to find a way to fascilitate the electronic communications and this just might give them an opportunity.

"Very good. Compare the aliens' voice patterns with the original message that we received from that vessel. If we can match them, we should be able to reconstruct their communication protocols. That should speed the process up enormously."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

The screen changed, this time showing two bipedal figures. They were similar in appearance, but whereaso ne bore a disturbing similarity to an asari in figure as well as face, the other seemed taller and blockier in built. The alien gestured again, pointing at the asari-like image.

"Female" She pointed at herself. Then she pointed at the second figure and at one of the soldiers. "Male"

The pressed a button and the images disappeared, only to be replaced by a bewildering range of similar creatures. All followed the same general pattern, but they displayed a wide rang of skin-tones.

"All human"

[[Solus, can you take a closer look?]] Shiana said. [[I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at. Are they all one species?]]

Mordin Solus studied the images for a moment.

[[Most likely, Yes. Seems great variation in coloring, but follow same pattern. Only two body-types. GMost likely genders.]]

The alien pressed the same button again and the image changed once more.

-o-o-o-

"How are things going, ms. Vickers?" Anderson and Zhong walked back into the mess hall, where Vickers seemed to be engaged in a sort of interstellar kindergarten with the three aliens.

"I think I'm getting at least some information across. I have a problem though. I'm the only human whose face they can actually see. I've shown a series of images and there seemed to be some confusion about them. Multiple races, two genders... I'm not even sure if they have genders. I mean, the blue ones look female, but that may just be our interpretation."

"So?"

"So... lieutenant, I don't like to ask this, but would it be possible for some of the marines to remove their helmets, give them a better understanding of the variety among humans."

Anderson looked at the medic. "Zhong? Your opinion?"

Zhong thought for a moment. "It should be fine captain. We're already breathing the air, even if it's through filters. I had advised to keep the helmets on for protection, but so far this area of the ship seems clear of face-huggers. Otherwise, if there is any kind of dangerous contaminant in the air, I haven't found it and neither has the ship's environmental system."

"Alright then, here we go."

-o-o-o-

One of the soldiers removed he front of his helmet, showing a dark skinned face. The others followed his example.

[[Quite fascinating,]] Mordin Solus remarked. [[Obviously same species, yet much variety, especially for small sample. Wonder how many more posibilities.]]

-o-o-o-

They were somewhat fortunate in that the marines present represented a decent cross-section of human fenotypes. Anderson was dark skinned, Corporal Zhong had clearly Asian features. Sergeant Zim was white. So were the two marine privates, one of whom also happened to be a woman.

"Thank you, lieutenant, that seems to have made things a bit more clear."

"Well, I'm sure we're all glad to contribute, ms. Vickers, but we have another problem."

"Yes?"

"The corpse in the storage area? Definitely a chestburster. And we think it may have gotten the rest of the crew as well."

Vickers closed her eyes for a moment to stay calm. It wasn't really a surprise, but still...

"Any idea how many, lieutenant?"

"No. There were eight hybernation pods. Probably at least one or two were spares, but still. That leaves us with six or more potential xenomorphs aboard this ship, if the eggs in the cargo hold were compromised. From what we know, they could still be alive. Even after all these years."

"Yes, of course." Vickers thought for a moment. "How can I help? I suppose I can show these people that they should leave. They might take it as an unfriendly act, but I suppose that would be better than having them stumble into a xenomorph.

"If it isn't too late already. Ms Vickers, we need information. We have to know if they ran into anything that looked like sign of xenomorphs. Most of all, we need numbers. I need to know if they brought anyone else on board. If any of those people may have been taken."

"Very well, I'll try. But, I cannot promise anything. They could misunderstand completely."

-o-o-o-

The female-looking human turned back to them and quickly manipulated the controls on her device. Images flashed by, too fast to follow as she appeared to be searching for something. When she stopped, the images had been replaced by a series of symbols that looked vaguely familiar.  
The alien raised one hand, fingers spread out. she tapped one with a finger of the other hand.

"One."

She tapped the next one.

"Two."

Another tap. "Three." and another "Four." and another "Five."

Then she pointed at the first symbol on the screen

"One" The next symbol. "Two"

Shiana felt, more than saw, Liara T'Soni lean forward. [[She's counting, captain. Look, those are the same symbols we saw on the bridge.]]

The human waited for a moment. Then, she pointed at Shiana: "One", Liara: "Two", Mordin: "Three". She gestured around, her arm seeming to encompass the entire ship.

"Four?" This time her voice seemed to become higher at the end.

[[Captain, I think she wants to know, if there are more of us on board.]]

Shiana swallowed, thinking of Moryala and the others. Then she leaned forward and pointed at the screen, moving past the symbols that the alien had indicated, until her finger came to rest on the next one.

-o-o-o-

"Six!"

"Well, at least they seem to understand," Anderson said. "But does that mean, six in total, or six more than these three."

"I think I can clear that up." Vickers tapped a few buttons, closing the presentation. Then she opened a new image, an outside view of the Calypso. She pointed at the aliens and held up three fingers. "Three" She pointed at the front of the ship, then moved her finger along the image. The blue-skinned alien -an asari, if she had understood the initial exchange correctly- who seemed to be in charge, leaned forward. She held up two fingers and pointed at the rear of the ship. Then she pointed at the top and held up one finger.

"Okay," Anderson looked at the image. "Two in the rear cargo area, where they docked their shuttle, and one more, where? On top of the ship?"

"Sir, if I may?" Sergeant Zim took a step forward. "I think she means the passage along the top. That's the only practical way for them to have walked here."

"You're right sergeant." Andrson activated his communicator. "Corporal Ishmael?"

"Sir?"

"Take O'Connor and check out the top passage. There is supposed to be at least one of these aliens there, so watch what you're shooting at. If you find it, try to bring it here. But, be careful. There's probably at least one xenomorph out there. Don't take any chances."

"Will do, sir!"

* * *

**USM Anzio**

"Captain, we're receiving a new message from the aliens."

Ramirez looked up from the report that he had been reading. The situation aboard the Calypso seemed stable for now, but the news wasn't good. Anderson and his people should be able to handle the relatively small number of xenomorphs they expected, but in the cramped confines of a ship battles were often fought at minimum range and despite all technological advantages, going hand-to-hand with a xenomorph was not something anyone wanted to try.

"Well, what is it? More line drawings"

"No, sir. It's a copy of the distress signal from the Calypso. Sir, I think they are trying to copy our communication protocols."

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

"Lieutenant Anderson?"

"Yes, corporal?"

Even through the communication link, Anderson thought Ishmael's sounded somewhat rattled. "Sir, we found a dead xenomorph in the passage."

"What?" How did it die?

"Looks like gunfire, sir. Individual holes are very small, but there are a lot of them. It bled out pretty badly and melted halfway through the deck. The passage looks pretty beaten up, too. I mean some of the wall plating looks like it's been twisted, or warped, or something."

"I understand. Get out of there immediately, corporal and come to the mess hall. We may need your help , if we have to discuss this with our alien friends."

-o-o-o-

It took only a few minutes for Ishmael and O'Connor to get to the mess hall. They, too opened their helmets when they entered and both looked shaken.

"No doubt about it sir, that thing got shot. A LOT of times."

"I believe you, corporal. The questions is, who did it? That one alien that was supposed to be there, or these three."

"Let's put it to the test." Vickers opened a second image and this time the reaction of the aliens was unmistakable. None of the humans present could really blame them. No matter how often you saw those images, there was something about the xenomorphs that seemed to cause fear on a very deep level. Vickers pointed at the creature, then moved her hand toward the image of the Calypso, but the asari was already moving, her hand briefly brushing Vickers' as she pointed at the xenomorph, than at the same spot that she had indicated before.

"That seems pretty clear," Anderson said.

"Perhaps. Let me try one more thing." Vickers pointed at the xenomorph again, than at the weapon that the asari was carrying. The message seemed understandable. The asari pointed at herself, then at her companions, then formed her hand in the shape of a gun, aiming it at the picture of the xenomorph.

"Definitely clear. So, they came across one of them in that passage. They shot it and either one of their friends got taken in that passage, or had already been taken-"

"-Or they left one of their friends there on watch, who has been taken since then." Vickers agreed. "But that leaves us with a problem, lieutenant. Under different circumstances, I would advice you to evacuate and destroy this ship, but if these people believe that their companions are still alive and on board, that might not be such a good idea."

"So, what do you suggest, ms. Vickers? I'd prefer not to search the cargo holds of this ship for missing aliens, while under attack by xenomorphs. DO you think there is any way that you could explain, what has most likely happened to their friends?"

"Shouldn't be too hard, " O'Connor spoke up for the first time, since he had entered the mess hall. "Look, the facehugger goes like this:" He pointed into his open mouth. "and then the chestburster goes like this:" his hands moved forward from his chest.

There was a moment of absolute silence.

-o-o-o-

[[Captain, I'm not sure I wish to know what that is supposed to mean.]] Shiana heard T'Soni whisper.

Shiana hesitated for a moment, then said, [[I... am not entirely sure either. Their species seems to have two genders. This individual would seem to be male. Males of other species are often fascinated by the shape of our breasts. But ... to indicate it in such a fashion and under these circumstances...]]

Vickers' face had remained completely expressionless: "I don't believe our new acquaintances completely understood, mr. eh. O'Connor, isn't it? And I must admit to some confusion myself. I can think of several explanations for your gestures. The least disturbing of which is the concept that you're taking hormone treatment to enlarge your breasts."

There was general laughter and everybody seemed to relax a bit.

"You're alright Vickers," Anderson said. "I never thought I would say this, but you're alright."

"Does that make me 'one of the guys'"

Anderson grinned. "Only if we get to call you Vicki."

"It's Meredith actually."

"I know, I think I prefer Vicki."

"Have it your way. In any case, now that we've had the layman's view on first contact. Back to the xenomorph. I have images, of course. Even an instruction vid. The problem is, I'm worried about the impression it will make. It makes it look, as though humans just stood by and watched while this kind of thing happened-"

"-which they did." Anderson reminded her.

"Yes, lieutenant, but that is not something we need to tell these people right away. Still, I don't think we have much of a choice."

She turned back toward her computer.

-o-o-o-

Whatever had just been said, it seemed to have caused a great deal of amusement among the humans, if Shiana had judged their reaction correctly. Still, it seemed that the joke was done. A new image appeared on he screen, a recording of something that resembled an egg, but made out of leather. A second image appeared next to it, the same egg, but half open as a strange, many-legged creature crawled out. A third image. This time one of the humans, lying on a bed with the same creature wrapped around his head, covering his face; the same human, his chest covered in what appeared to be red blood, as a small head burst out of his ribcage; and, finally, the creature that they had encountered in the passage.

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_**Wow, a lot of interesting suggestions for new ME-xenomorphs. Thanks everyone. This will definitely help me work things out.**_

_**As I promised, no mind meld. Shiana nearly got shot just switching on her omnitool.**_

_**Midweekcomic13: Heheheh, thanks for the suggestion, I've tried to do it justice without losing my T-rating. Also, thanks for the idea on biotic xenomorphs ending up eating each other. Restricting their numbers would go a long way toward evening the odds.**_

_**Mr guy: Xenomorphs are pretty tough individually, but not THAT tough compared to properly armed soldiers. They need numbers. (in Aliens the marines killed lots of them before their defences were overrun and in AvP the predators had deliberately handicapped themselves by going in without guns.) The problems is that biotics could make them very strong as individuals and would give them a ranged ability. If I let that happen, it will be difficult to come up with a good reason why anybody can defeat them at all, short of orbital bombardment, and that would really limit the possibilities for story telling.**_

_**A Mountain Sage: Yes, stargate (the movie) was great in that respect. They still made it too easy, of course, but it was one of the rare occasions that people actually put thought into it, let alone made it a major plot point.**_

_**AVoiceOfReason: The person who said that prime-numbers were only a curiosity was a salarian. Using prime-number factorization as an encryption algorithm is a human choice, it doesn't have to work that way. I've worked this out a bit more in my parallel story: ****Intelligence reports **_

_**Kaioo: Well, right now it is mostly a matter of complete astonishment that evolution could play a trick like that on two species. There is some sense of attraction, but keep in mind that everybody is in environmental suits, though the ME types may be somewhat form-fitting. (I think of the one Vickers is wearing as the type shown in Prometheus and the marines are in full body armour, which hides the figure completely.) Of course the entire concept is a silly, but at least in ME they actually tried to come up with an explanation how it could work and considered the possible personal and social consequences, rather than just dumping it on us and expecting us to believe that everything works just fine, like in most franchises.**_  
_**Xenomorphs are indeed supposed to be able to survive almost anywhere (Though, to be honest, surviving vacuum for a few seconds doesn't actually mean much. Humans can survive in vacuum as long as they can stay conscious, holding their breath. With an oxygen supply we can actually survive in space without protection for a few minutes, before we begin to boil.) Still, the flexibility with respect to environment would seem to make the xenomorphs ideal if you had to fight, say, the rachni.**_


	11. Chapter 10: Searching for bugs

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

**Just passed 100 followers. Once again, thank you all for taking an interest.**

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**USCSS Calypso, mess hall**

"Fascinating creature," Mordin Solus seemed positively delighted by what they were seeing. "Not simply predator. Highly evolved parasite as well. Must wonder, if need for specific host, or cross-species adabtable."

"If it can use other species..." Liara T'Soni began. The young asari had seemed close to fainting once the implictations of the human images had sank in, but, for the moment, she seemed to be holding it together.

"Then we know what is happening to Moryala and the others, right now." Shiana finished grimly. She looked at the human, who seemed to be waiting for some sort of response. Shiana silently cursed the poor conditions under which they had had to make contact. Now, more than ever, she needed to communicate. She thought for a moment, than pointed at the image of the human with the parasite attached to his face. She put both hands together, than pulled them apart, as if separating something. The human moved her head from side to side. She pointed at the same image, then pointed at herself. Then she tapped against the weapon that was attached to her environmental suit. She formed her hand in the shape of a gun and placed it against her own head.

"That seems rather clear, captain."

"Yes, either they cannot separate the parasite from the host, or they simply don't bother to try. Either way, there seems to be little hope."

-o-o-o-

"I hope that was clear."

"So do I," Anderson said softly. "We have to make them understand, that their friends are probably gone. One way, or another, I'm not leaving this ship intact with the xenomorphs on board."

"I understand, lieutenant, but if we destroy the ship with even the possibility of those people still alive and on board, we'll be facing serious problems down the road. Besides, the two near the cargohatch may still be alive. Do we have any idea where the xenomorphs are hiding out? Always assuming, of course, that there are indeed more of them."

"We have to assume that. Anything else is just wishful thinking. My people have searched the crew area from one end to the other and found nothing. Not even a blip on the motion scanners. The only place where they have appeared recently is in that corridor. My guess is that they have settled in the cargo area."

"Can we move recon drones into the cargo area from the overhead passage, perhaps find the bodies?."

"Not from here. All the doors in the passage have manual locks. You need to actually be there to open them and I'm not sending marines down that corridor if I can help it. It's clear that the xenomorphs have access to it and it would be the perfect spot for an ambush. We'd be massacred. "

"Is there any other way to get visuals from inside that area?"

"In theory, there are two entrances to each cargo space: The overhead passage, which also has a secondary crawlspace underneath for the control runs, and the internal doors. These cargo modules are interconnected, but only with each other. There is no direct connection between the most forward cargo module and the crew-compartment, so we cannot access them from here."

Vickers thought for a moment. "What about.., if we go in from the other end. Take one of the shuttles to the cargo hatch. No chance of being ambushed. That way, we can at least check what happened to the other two aliens. If we find them, fine. If not, we'll be able to move directly between the modules, no need to go into that corridor. If the original cargo-manifest is in any way valid, the ship should be mostly empty, so your marines will have a clear field of fire. And we can bring these three with us, show the situation, and take them back to their own shuttle at the same time."

"So, you suggest we move them back to the cargo hold, try to show them what has happened to their people, make them leave, and then destroy the ship?"

"Yes. It's imperfect, but I think it'll give us the best possible outcome."

"It would also involve getting them onto a shuttle. They may balk at that, I know I would in their position; not to mention that we're talking about letting aliens, armed aliens, inside a military vehicle."

"So, what exactly will they learn? That we have shuttles and that those shuttle have an interior? What is it about the inside of a drop ship that is even remotely classified? I've seen recruitment posters for the marines that show as much. And I doubt that they would try to take over the shuttle. They wouldn't know how to fly it."

"Point taken." Anderson considered it for a moment. "Very well, I'm willing to give it a try, if you can convince them to come with us."

"I'll see what I can do. I just hope I have the right images available."

-o-o-o-

The human had turned her device toward herself and was rapidly manipulating its controls. Time seemed to pass by with all the speed of an elcor on sedatives as she worked, while Shiana tried, in vain, to come up with a workable plan. The problem was, that she still lacked crucial data and had no way to verify if the data she had was accurate. The human's gestures seemed clear enough. Anyone infected by the parasite would be killed. Having seen the end product of the creature's development Shiana could sympathize with such harsh measures. Still, somewhere on this ship, there were three of her people, people who had trusted her to bring them safely back. Even if the humans had shown her the absolute truth, she owed it to her crew to at least try to bring them back. There was no way to know if asari or salarians could even be used as hosts. If this creature came from the human's home world, it might not be able to incubate in lifeforms from other worlds. For that matter, the fact that the humans could not remove the parasite did not necessarily mean that it was impossible. From what she had observed so far, human technology seemed to be less advanced than that of most citadel races. The problem was, what to do next. If she was to rescue anyone, she would need support, firepower, far more than she had now, and it seemed unlikely that the humans would allow her to bring anyone else on board. At the very least, she had to find a way to get herself and her companions back to their shuttle. So far the humans seemed reasonably friendly, but there were no guarantees that this wouldn't change.  
The human seemed to have finished whatever she had been doing and turned her device around. This time the screen showed a number of images at the same time: the ship itself, with an image of the creature superimposed on the cargo space, a rather poor quality picture of the shuttle that they had taken from the Light of Dawn, and another shuttle craft, presumably the type used by the humans. As the human manipulated various controls, new symbols appeared. A line connected the Light of Dawn's shuttle to the after part of the ship. A second line connected the human shuttle to the front of the ship. The human female pointed at Shiana, then at the human shuttle, then slowly manipulated the image, so that the picture of the human's shuttle moved to the aft section of the ship.

"Captain, I believe, they're offering to transport us back to our own shuttle," Liara T'Soni said.

"Agreed, but what about the others? They may be lost, but I'm not willing to give up on them yet."

The human gestured again. She pointed at herself and the soldiers around her, then pointed again at the shuttle, then traced her hand across the cargo hold of the ship, toward the image of the creature.

"Seems, neither are they. Still, cannot be sure: rescue, or kill." Mordin Solus sounded thoughtful. "Killing understandable. Otherwise, very unpleasant death. Sill, might be premature. Perhaps, other solutions possible."

"Perhaps. Also, how do we know we can trust them to actually take us to our shuttle."

"No way to know, still, seems pointless deception. Have us outnumbered, outgunned. No need for subtlety."

Shiana considered her two remaining team mates. So far the two scientists had held up under the strain much better than she had expected. T'Soni actually seemed to have gained confidence over the past few hours. Still, there was only so much anyone could take before they broke down and there was no way to tell when that would happen. She would feel a lot better if she could get these two back to their own shuttle, or at least close enough that they would have a way to retreat that did not involve fighting their way past either the humans, the creatures in the cargo hold, or both. It looked like the humans were willing to solve at least that part of her dilemma. That left the problem of what to do about her three missing crew members.  
Shiana pointed at herself and her crew mates, than pointed at the the image of the ship, moving her hand along the same pattern toward the creature.

-o-o-o-

"It seems they want to come with us when we check the holds." Anderson said sourly.

"Not all that surprising, with at least one, possible three, people missing. Would it be a big problem?"

"That depends. Not if they stay behind us, if they don't try to interfere. A lot of 'ifs' there. My biggest worry is that they will have to pull out those weapons. Possibly use them, if we get jumped. So far, my people seem to be pretty relaxed around them. I guess it helps that they look a bit like us. But, if the shooting starts, that might change. Let me try something."

He leaned forward, pointed at himself, then at the aliens, then at the rearmost cargo module. Then he pointed at himself and pointed at the second to rear-most cargo module. Then he pointed to the aliens and at same cargo module. He waited a moment, then repeated the sequence for the third module.

-o-o-o-

"Wants us to follow. Makes sense, soldiers go first, secure area. We move next. Then repeat."

"Agreed. Levarn, Lucinus. have you been following this?" Confirmation from both came over the open channel."Then you know what is about to happen. We'll let the humans take us back to the cargo hold and try to find out what happened to Donal, V'Rini, and Moryala. I'm not sure what will happen if we don't find them, but at least we'll know more than we do now. Lucinus, I want you to keep the shuttle at the airlock, as long as the humans don't try to approach. If they do, take off, but stay near this ship. So far, these people don't seem hostile, but we cannot afford to have our retreat cut off."

"Captain, what happens when you enter the cargo area?" That was Lucinus' voice. "Whatever attacked V'Rini and DonalI may still be in there. I think you should warn these humans that those creatures might be closer than they think. They might even be at the airlock."

Shiana pointed at the images of the creature, then moved her hand to the back of the ship. There was no way to be sure of the humans understood, but she could not in good conscience let them walk straight into a potential ambush, without even trying to warn them.

-o-o-o-

"I'm not sure what she means. Do you think she means that the xenomorphs are already in the aft cargo, or just that they might move to attack us there?"

Anderson shrugged. "No way to tell. In any case, it hardly matters. One way or another, we have to treat this as a hostile environment." He raised his voice. "Alright people, new plan. We'll split in two groups. Sergeant Zim and his squad will remain here. Sergeant, I want you to secure any and all data from the ship's computers as well as any hard-copy you can find. Then, you evacuate the ship. If the xenomorphs come looking for you before you're done here, you evacuate right away. There is nothing here that is worth the life of even a single marine. Meanwhile, I'll take the second squad, ms. Vickers and those three aliens in the other shuttle. We'll move to the aft cargo hatch, and secure the cargo modules. Remember, there may still be two of these aliens around, so look before you shoot. Once the first module is secure, we'll try to move to the next. Drones first. No-one enters a room, before we've scouted it out. Our only goal here is to find the missing aliens, dead or alive, not to wipe out the xenomorphs. We'll do that the easy way from the Anzio."

"Sir, why not just use the self-destruct?" Zim asked.

"No, sergeant. Self destruct on these old ships is a mess. You have to set it well in advance and once you do it, it quickly becomes irreversible. I don't want to risk anyone getting trapped aboard this ship while it's counting down to oblivion."

* * *

**Viking dropship **

The short trip on the human shuttle craft was both enlightening and uncomfortable. Its interior was lined with seats, each of which came with a heavy crash harness and the humans had insisted that Shiana and her team mates used these. The reason quickly became obvious as the shuttle craft accelerated steeply away from the ship. Either the humans did not have the technology to equip craft of this size with adequate inertial dampers, or they simply didn't feel the need. Either way, the pilot certainly didn't feel the need to take this into account while manouvering and Shiana knew she would emerge from this trip with an interesting collection of bruises. The human soldiers had refastened their face-covering helmets, making it impossible to judge their feelings on the subject, but the female who had done most of the communicating seemed to be as uncomfortable as Shiana felt, if her facial expression was anything to judge by. Uncomfortable or not, the trip was at least accomplished in a minimal amount of time and the shuttle craft landed with a sharp deceleration that was as unpleasant as the take-off had been.

* * *

**USCSS Calypso, cargo hatch**

They had chosen not to land near the Light of Dawn's shuttle, perhaps realizing that such close proximity might cause problems, and used a cargo hatch on the other side of the ship instead. Just as Shiana and her crew had done when they first entered the ship, the humans used the personnel access airlock next to the cargo door. A group of six humans entered first, weapons at the ready. Shiana took a step forward to follow them, but was held back by the female who had been communicating with them. For what seemed like an eternity, they waited outside the airlock with the remaining soldiers. Then some signal seemed to have been passed along and the humans gestured for them to enter.  
The cargo hold was empty. No sign of either of her two crew members. As Shiana watched, the human soldiers spread out, covering the entire floor, searching for something.

-o-o-o-

"Sir, we have something here." Corporal Ishmael pointed along the wall. "Looks like some acid got splashed here. And I think these dents are from small arms fire. But they don't match any type of weapon I know."

"So, someone shot a xenomorph here."

"Yes sir, but I don't think they killed it. The acid is pretty localized and it doesn't look like there was a lot of it."

"Not good; definitely not good." Anderson took a deep breath. "Very well. Open up that door at the top of the stairs and deploy a recon drone. Just set it as an observer. I want to know if anything enters the passage. Once that is done, we'll leave four marines here. That should be enough to keep our line of retreat open. That gives us eight, plus the two of us, to search the next module. And, Ishmael, make sure everyone stays sharp. We don't know what we'll find. If it's just a handful of them hiding out in some dark corner, that is one thing. If one of those eggs hatched a queen... Then we have a whole new problem."

**!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!**

_**The final confrontation is approaching. **_

* * *

_**TK: I know Liara is** _**_more confident than you would expect under the circumstances. (I've lampshaded it a little bit in this chapter.) That's partially, because I got fed up very quickly with writing her as uncertain and nervous. On the other hand, in ME1 she was always fine during combat. It was only in social situations that she seemed awkward. I try to think of her as someone who is just shy around people, hates speaking in public, etc., but does fine as long as she can focus on whatever she's doing. I suppose I could_ _have spent more time working that out, but character development is hard to do well, and I already have a lot of scenes with people just standing around and talking. She also has __less of a social handicap than in the canon version because I'm ditching the 'prejudice against purebloods' thing. It never made much sense to me. Are all the billions of asari on Thessia making journeys off-world to get pregnant? That would be something like the quarian pilgrimage. I could have believed it, maybe, if asari had only a small population, but that doesn't seem to be the case._**

_**A Mountain Sage: Interesting point about the computers. It would create a lot of cross-compatibility (assuming that those species switched to the prothean type after finding their first archive/ruin etc.) But indeed, in my universe there were no ruins on Mars. Humans got their eezo drive system from the space-jockey ship in LV-426, but by that time their own computers were well developed, so there wouldn't be much incentive to switch.  
I did consider alternatives to the queen, but it would mean dumping a lot of Alien canon and leave me very little to work with. I intend to go with the approach that was hinted at by e.g. Steve Perry in Earth Hive; that the xenomorphs are actually genetically engineered to be soldiers. In my case: someone wanted to fight the rachni and came up with this bright idea. I plan on a sequel starring Shepard, which will involve some people trying the same thing, with predictable results.  
For the moment biotic xenomorphs won't be an issue, because there hasn't been sufficient time for one to incubate and grow to full size. In Shepard's time however ...  
**_


	12. Chapter 11: Finding the bugs

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

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**USCSS Calypso**

Most of the human soldiers had moved toward the forward bulkhead, where a pile of boxes obscured a door that Shiana had not even noticed on her first visit. _What kind of idiot loads cargo that way. Most of the hold is empty, but what little cargo here is, is obscuring an exit. _As Shiana watched from a distance one of the soldiers took a small, spherical object out of his backpack and tossed it through the open door. It seemed to halt in mid-air, than floated away. Apparently it was a reconnaisance drone of some kind, because the soldier seemed to be able to follow its progress on a small monitor that was clipped to his wrist like an omnitool. A second soldier, carrying a truly massive gun, suspended from a harness that wrapped around his body watched the half-open door intently, weapon at the ready.

-o-o-o-

"Only partial lighting, lieutenant. There is no obstruction, the lights just don't seem to work properly."

Lieutenant Anderson watched over PFC Rutgers' shoulder as he steered the drone through the next cargo module. This one, like the one they were currently in, was almost empty. It was also half-dark.

"Any sign of movement?"

"No, sir. Nothing. It's as quiet as a tomb."

"You HAD to use that particular metaphor, didn't you, Rutgers? Alright. Four man squad, advance and secure the next module. Corporal Ishmael, take point."

The marines passed through the door into the next area. A few minutes passed, then Ishmael's voice came over the squad circuit.

"All clear, sir. No sign of hostiles, but definitely sign of xenomorphs."

Anderson gestured for Vickers and the three aliens to follow him as he stepped into the next cargo module. There was barely enough light to see with the naked eye, but the night-vision equipment built into his helmet provided an adequate view of the surroundings. The aliens didn't seem to have similar equipment, because beams of visible light projected from their helmets, creating long shadows that contributed to the already gloomy atmosphere.

"Show me, corporal."

"Right here, sir."

Ishmael was standing at the other end of the hold where a door lead to the next section. The area around the door was covered with a strange, resin-like substance that was effectively preventing the door from closing.

"They've built a hive."

"Yes, sir. And it looks like it's in the next module."

"Rutgers?"

"Ready, sir"

"Send it through."

The little drone passed through the door into near darkness.

-o-o-o-

Whatever the substance was that the soldiers had found near the open door, it clearly had some significance for them, for Shiana could see the increased tension in their stance even through body armour and helmets. The looked at the human female standing next to her and noticed that she, too, was now aiming her weapon at the door.

* * *

**USM Anzio**

"Captain, we're receiving a message from sergeant Zim, sir. He says he's finished collecting data and is ready to return as ordered."

"Any news from lieutenant Anderson?"

"No, sir. The last thing the sergeant heard was that that they had entered the cargo hold and where about to making their way forward."

Captain Ramirez considered his options. Part of him wanted to send Zim after Anderson but he restrained himself. Anderson had not asked for reinforcements and sending extra marines in blindly could easily lead to frendly-fire accidents. Throw in a bunch of aliens that they still couldn't communicate with above the most basic level and you had the perfect mix for total disaster. Instead he decided to compromise.

"Tell Zim to undock, but not return yet. Have him keep station on the Calypso in case lieutenant Anderson needs support."

He turned back to his view screens were a steady stream of data, received from the alien ship, was being diplayed and analyzed. There was something surreal about the whole situation. Here he was, successfully making peaceful first contact with an alien civilization, while almost within shouting distance his marine contingent might well be fighting for their lives.

"How are things with our new friends? Have they explained the true meaning of the universe yet?"

* * *

**USCSS Calypso**

Apparently the drone had not encountered any of the creatures, for a team of four soldiers advanced once again into the next section of the cargo area. Suddenly, there was some commotion as the soldiers around her seemed to receive some sort of message through their communicators. Their was a brief discussion, then the leader gestured toward Shiala and pointed at the Tempest sub-machine gun that she was still carrying. he made a grasping motion with his hand. _Now what_?_ All this time they accepted that we were armed, but now he wants to confiscate our weapons? That's not going to happen. Not with those things around. _She took a step back. The soldier looked at the human female and said something. She answered, an expression that could well be annoyance appearing briefly on her face, than she handed her weapon to the soldier and took a step towards Shiana.  
Shiana took another step back. Behind her she could almost feel her companions tensing up as the situation seemed to take avery ugly turn. The human took another step forward, her eyes fixed on Shiana's face, hands held out in plain sight. This time Shiana stood her ground. Backing up further didn't really seem like it would solve anything anyway.

"T'Soni, prepare to use your biotics. On my signal, put a singularity on the leader. I'll hit the female. We'll only have on shot at this. The moment they're disabled, we run for the door and lock it behind us. There are still four of them near the airlock, but when we come through that door those cargo boxes will cover us for a few moments."

The female gestured. She pointed at Shiana, then at the submachine gun, then at the open door. _Wait, what... _She pointed at Shiana again, then held her hands, as though holding a weapon._ Does the mean...?_ Before she could finish the thought the human stepped forward, closing the distance, and grabbed Shiana's wrist.

"Captain..?"

"Wait! I think I understand."

Without breaking eye contact the human pushed Shiana's hand down and placed it on top of her sidearm. Then she released her and stepped back. Very slowly Shiana pulled the Tempest from its magnetic clamp. No-one tried to stop her. Shiana slowly released the breath that she hadn't realized she was holding.

"Solus, T'Soni. Draw your weapons. Whatever is in that next area, they seem to want us armed and ready."

-o-o-o-

"That was stupid Vickers." Anderson remarked as he handed her shotgun back. "You're lucky they hesitated, otherwise..."

"I know, but we're running out of time here and I had to get the message across. We cannot let them walk in there with their guns holstered."

"Just let me know in future. It might save me from heart attack."

Vickers laughed. "You know, Anderson, I might actually start to think that you care."

"Let's just say that it wouldn't look good on my record if you got killed over a simple misunderstanding. And speaking of getting killed. I think it's time we showed them what we're dealing with, here. Let's move people."

-o-o-o-

Despite the initial misunderstanding, it seemed to Shiana that she had made the right decision. A conclusion that was strengthened further once she stepped through the door into a nightmarish environment. This place was even darker than the one before, making it nearly impossible to see anything outside the direct beam of her helmet lights. Unlike the previous sections of the cargo hold, this part was actually filled with crates and boxes, many off them coated with the resin like substance they had found near the door, which gave the entire area an almost organic appearance, as though they were walking inside the body of a giant organism.  
Slowly, with the soldiers around her carefully checking each corner, they made their way through the maze to where the little drone was now floating in place. In front of the drone, three familiar-looking figures were hanging from the wall.

"Oh, goddess!" Liara T'Soni, who was closer to the wall was the first to realize what they were seeing and stumbled back in horror as she recognized them. Shiana forced herself to look closer, even as every instinct in her body told her to run away and find a place to hide from what she was seeing. All three of her missing crew members were encased in the resin that covered the walls, holding them fixed in place. Their helmets seemed to have been forced open somehow. Donal was clearly dead, with a gaping wound in his chest where it seemed that something had forced its way out through both his chest and his environmental suit.

"Universal parasites." Mordin Solus sounded subdued as he inspected the body of his fellow salarian. "Not prey-specific. Wound similar to the one found on human body. Suit and helmet no impediment. He looked at the two asari. Moryala's face was covered by one of the creatures that the humans had shown them, its legs clamped to her head and the tail wrapped round her neck. V'Rini, on the other hand seemed almost unharmed. As Shiana approached, she opened her eyes.

"V'Rini"

"Captain, wait!" V'Rini's voice sounded hoarse. "There is... There is-"

Her words turned to a scream and before Shiana's horrified gaze, something started moving inside her environmental suit. Her screams were cut off abruptly as her chest seemed to burst open in a geyser of blood. From the open wound, a small head emerged, sporting a large number of razor-sharp teeth.

One of the soldiers dragged Shiana back and another reached out to grab the creature by its throat before it could fully emerge. Even as he touched it, a blueish glow surrounded the creature and the soldier's hand seemed to be slapped aside as though by an invisible force. That was enough time for the creature to fully emerge from V'Rini's chest, jump to the floor, and scuttle away.

"What in Athame's name-"

Shiana didn't get to finish her sentence as a large, dark shape suddenly dropped right in the middle of the small group and chaos erupted all around.

**!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!**

**A slight misunderstanding based on misinterpretation of a hand gesture. Here it was solved peacefully because by now there is at least a little trust on both sides and Shiana tends to favour non-violent solutions. Another officer might have drawn a gun to warn Vickers off when she approached (not entirely without justification) and the next thing you know you have an armed stand-off and/or a shoot-out.**

**I'm playing a bit fast and loose with the incubation time, but I wanted to show at least a hint of the ME_alien/xenomorph and the movies weren't very consistent on that subject either. To paraphrase J. Michael** **Straczynski: Xenomorphs incubate with the speed of the plot.**

* * *

**Hazzamo: Eventually, the Predators will make an appearance. In terms of technology they fit in rather well (the Predators seem to have the same kind of personal cloak as an ME infiltrator) and the ability to visually cloak a whole ship might make a nice addition to the Normandy once they get to know each other). The question is whether the ME races are aware of them. Predators are a secretive bunch, but they do get around a lot, so it's unlikely that none of the ME races ever ran into them. Perhaps I'll keep them as a sort of interstellar bogey men: Some species have legends about invisible aliens hunting them, but no-one alive has actually seen them. That might also be an additional reason for not casually opening mass relays.  
**


	13. Chapter 12: Dealing with consequences

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

**More than 100 favs. Once again, my deepest gratitude.**

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**USCSS Calypso**

The creature had jumped down from the ceiling in the middle of their group, a drop of at least ten meters.

_There's people all around it; I cannot shoot! _

Shiana started to power up her biotics, but the thing was already moving. A swipe of its tail send Mordin Solus flying, his helmet split open as with a sword. The creature leapt forward, landing on top of one of the soldiers. Its tong shot out with terrible force, punching through his helmet.  
Clearly, the humans were less worried about friendly casualties, because a burst of gunfire slammed into the creature. It stumbled backward, shrieking, only to be ripped apart, green-yellow blood splashing everywhere, as more of the soldiers joined in.

The soldier with the massive gun attached to his harness turned around and aimed his weapon in Shiana's direction. For one terrifying moment she thought that some form of blood rage had taken over and the humans would now turn on them. The next instant she realized what was actually happening. Out of the corner of her eye she saw two more creatures come charging out of the shadows. Shiana threw herself to the side, giving the human soldier a clear field of fire. The human rifles had certainly proven to be effective, but this weapon took it to a whole new level. There was a deafening noise and a stream of bullets tore through the creatures, literally cutting one of them in half and throwing the other back in a mangled heap. A third one, so far undetected, jumped at Shiana as she lay on the deck. Instinctively, she lashed out with her biotics, sending it flying backwards. Even before it hit the ground, a second biotic field wrapped itself around the creature and lifted it off the ground. Another burst of gunfire and it stopped moving. Then, for a moment, there was silence.

"Mordin!" Liara T'Soni ran toward the fallen salarian, who had not moved from where the first creature had tossed him.  
Shiana slowly rose to her feet and looked around. She had hoped not to use biotic powers in front of the humans and now both she and T'Soni had shown their abilities. Still, the response was less extreme than she had feared. Though she couldn't see the expressions of the soldiers' faces, they seemed more concerned with the casualties than with the demonstration of biotic power. One of the humans was down with a hole punched straight through his helmet and, presumably, his head. Another had been splashed with the creature's blood. Even as she watched as second soldier dropped to his knees next to the injured man and ripped the outer layer of the man's armour. It came away easily, as though it had been designed for quick removal. Next he ripped open a small package and covered the soldier's wounds with a white powder. Shiana's gaze crossed that of the human female with the open helmet. She, at least, was looking at the two asari, her face expressionless.

"Captain!" T'Soni's voice cut through her thoughts. "He's still alive!"

Shiana moved to join the younger asari. There would be time to think about the implications of the human's acceptance of biotics later. Mordin Solus was lying on the deck; unconscious, but breathing. The blow from the creature's tail had cut open his helmet taking off part of his right horn, and he was bleeding heavily. T'Soni had opened a first aid package and was trying to apply a bandage.

_It could be worse. A salarian's horns are mainly decorative anyway. If we can stop the bleeding he has a chance._

Before Shiana had a chance to do anything to help, she felt a hand on her shoulder. One of the human soldiers had approached and was puling her back. Looking behind her she saw that the humans had already picked up their casualties and were carrying them away. She hesitated. Yes, the wounded had to be evacuated before more of the creatures showed up, but that left one unsolved problem: Moryala.

She looked at her crew member, who was still stuck to the wall. To her amazement she noticed that the creature had fallen off during the fight and was now lying on the ground. Moryala's eyes were open and she appeared conscious.

"Moryala? Can you understand me."

The former commando swallowed, trying to find her voice. When she finally spoke it came out as a hoarse whisper.

"Captain, I can... I can feel it inside me. Please, don't let it... Don't let it..."

Her voice trailed off.

The leader of the human soldiers stepped forward. He grabbed the resin-like substance that was holding Moryala in place and started tearing it off, freeing her right arm. For a moment Shiana felt hope that the humans might actually have a solution to this particular parasite that did not involve killing the host.

-o-o-o-

Anderson hesitated for a moment. Ever since realizing that some of the aliens had been taken he had pondered how to handle this particular problem. He could not, under any circumstances allow an infected host to be removed from the hive. The danger was simply too great. On the other hand, Meredith Vickers had made a good point. They could not simply kill one of the aliens. Not when it was still near-impossible to communicate any but the most basic concepts. The long term repercussions could be devastating. He took of his helmet, despite the danger. Human or not, considering what he was about to do, he owed it to this being to look her in the eye.  
Anderson drew his handgun from the holster and worked the slide. The weapons used by these aliens looked at least superficially similar to human handguns, so they would probably understand how a trigger worked. Now, if only the alien understood what he was offering and had the courage to do it... From the corner of his eye, he saw the second alien lift her weapon as if to stop her, but he chose to ignore it, fixing his gaze on the one that was still stuck to the wall..

"Lieutenant!"

"Don't worry, Vickers. I'm not going to shoot her. At least, not as long as I have another choice."

He reversed his grip on the pistol and put it into the alien's hand, wrapping her finger around the trigger. Something changed in her eyes: comprehension maybe, perhaps even gratitude. There was no way to tell. He knew she couldn't understand him, but he felt he had to say something.

"I'm sorry."

-o-o-o-

Shiana looked on in horror as she understood what the human had in mind.

"Moryala, wait!"

A ghost of a smile appeared on Moryala's face.

"It's alright, captain. I saw... I saw what happened to Donal... before that thing took me. Believe me, that is not a good way to go. I was about to ask you to do it for me. Better this way."

She was still smiling as she lifted the gun to her head and pulled the trigger.

-o-o-o-

"We need to talk about what we just saw. Our new acquaintances are full of surprises," Anderson said softly. They had retreated to the after airlocks. This part of the cargo area was much better lit, allowing Zhong to take care of the casualties. The two aliens were tending to their friend, who seemed to be alive despite what looked like severe head-trauma. For the moment neither Vickers nor Anderson had anything to do.

"Yes, fully trained biotics, both of them. As powerful as any human I've ever seen; and with rather better control. And they cannot be that unique if there's two of them serving on a ship in the middle of nowhere."

"I'll take your word for it. I only saw a demonstration, once, as part of training. Perhaps they all have it. You saw what happened with the chestburster. It came from the same kind of alien. Asari, right?"

"Yes, asari, at least I think that's the species name. I didn't want to believe what I saw, at first, but we've always known that the xenomorphs take over characteristics of their hosts. If they can take biotic powers... My god, think about what that would mean."

The squad medic had finished his work and was walking over to them.

"Zhong, report."

"Corporal Ishmael is gone, sir. Bastard punched straight through his skull. Nothing I can do. O'Connor is down as well; some acid burns, but not too bad. I've neutralized the acid. The rest will keep."

"And the alien?"

"You mean Rosswell-guy, or whatever he's called? I don't know, sir. he's actually lost part of the top of his head and there is a bunch of stuff leaking out that I think should stay on the inside. Still, he's not actually dead. He's breathing, or whatever it is he does, and the other two at least seem to think that he can be saved. His helmet is open to the atmosphere, of course, but that doesn't seem to be a problem."

"So, they can survive in our atmosphere."

"At least that one looks like he's managing. Perhaps those blue-girls have a problem with it, but it's not something you can ask with a few gestures."

Anderson thought for a moment.

"It doesn't really matter, right now. What we need right now is to find a way to get him back aboard their shuttle, despite his compromised suit. Any thoughts?"

"Well, sir, we have stretcher units with airtight containers aboard the Viking, but I'd rather not use one of those. They aren't cheap and the procurement office would have a fit we just start handing them out to any alien that passes by. Besides, you need to know how to use them. Honestly sir, I wouldn't feel good about letting anybody fiddle with those things unless I was there to make sure they got it right. Unless you know how to work the locks it takes a plasma-torch to open them. I know of a case where a patient suffocated inside the container, because nobody knew how to get him out. They've improved since then, but it can still happen."

"What are the alternatives? I don't want you aboard their shuttle and their shuttle cannot attach directly to the cargo hatch. Please tell me we don't have to fly this guy back to the crew compartment and have the aliens dock there as well.

Zhong though for a moment.

"Maybe not, sir. There should be..."

He walked to the personnel airlock and opened a cargo container that was attached to the wall. After a moment he came back, carrying something that looked vaguely like a white, partially deflated beach-ball.

"What the...? Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes, sir. A rescue ball. Lot's of these old ships had them stored near the airlocks. Much cheaper than an environmental suit."

"And mostly useless. Even if someone is actually willing to get into that thing, it's not as though he can do anything. You need someone to carry you."

"Yes, sir. Fortunately, there's two more aliens to do the carrying. And it's perfect for this situation. If they cannot figure out how to open it, they can just cut it open. I just hope, that his joints will allow us to put him in there."

"And that he doesn't wake up while inside!" Despite the seriousness of the situation, Anderson had to grin. "Can you imagine?"

-o-o-o-

Taking care of the wounded salarian had proven to be something of a blessing for Shiana as it gave her something to concentrate on other than the horrific events of the recent past. The humans had assisted, a little, but seemed uncertain when dealing with a wounded member of another species. Still, she appreciated their help. Especially, because they had solved a major problem for her: how to get Mordin Solus back to the shuttle despite the damage to his helmet. Of all the things that Shiana had seen aboard the human vessel, this was perhaps the strangest. Initially, she had no idea what the human soldier wanted when he brought the object to them. Now she knew.

_Why would anyone design a pressurized ball to carry people in? What possible purpose could it serve? _

The humans had helped them to put the unconscious salarian in the strange device and demonstrated how to pressurize it. The former proved to be rather difficult. It was fortunate that salarian bodies tended to be flexible, or they might not have been able to fit him inside, which made her wonder how the humans themselves had ever intended to use it. An asari dancer would probably have been able to twist her body sufficiently to get inside, but from what she had so far observed humans tended to be rather taller and heavier. Carrying the strange device had proven to be a problem as well. The object was either designed for people much stronger than the average asari, or exclusively for use in zero-gravity. Even together she and T'Soni could not carry it with the salarian inside and dragging it seemed like a bad idea. Two of the soldiers had helped them to carry the ball into the airlock. Fortunately, once outside in the micro-gravity environment of the outer hull, the problem disappeared.  
As quickly as they could they manhandled the ball to their shuttle. Mordin Solus seemed to be stable for now, but the sooner they could get him back to the Light of Dawn and get him proper medical attention, the better. Besides, the humans had been very clear. Before their departure they had shown one more presentation; the two shuttles departing from the ship, followed by an image of an explosion. Whatever the relationship between the humans and the creatures in the cargo module was, the humans clearly didn't intend to let any of them escape.

-o-o-o-

Anderson looked around the cargo-bay. The aliens had departed and his marines were in the process of transferring both Ishmael and O'Connor to the dropship for transport back to the Anzio. It was time to put an end to this situation once and for all.

"That takes care of the wounded. Now let's finish this."

"You still plan to blow up the ship?"

"Yes. All of the aliens are accounted for, so that is no longer an impediment. Sergeant Zim and his squad have already departed and are waiting for us before they return to the Anzio. As for the Calypso, the decision is simple enough. A nest like that means that there is almost certainly a queen on board. Probably in the cargo module beyond the one we were just in. And you know the regulations as well as I do. If there's even a hint of a queen. We have to sterilize the area completely. Blowing up the ship is the only certain way to do that."

"What about that little display of biotics?" Vickers asked. "A biotic xenomorph... I still have trouble believing it, but if that is possible-"

"What exactly are you suggesting?"

"I won't lie to you, Anderson. Part of me wants to recover it. We still know so little about biotics. If they really can be transferred to a xenomorph, that alone would give us new insight. Studying it... The potential is enormous." She sighed. "... But you're right. We have these rules for a reason. That still leaves the question: how are we going to report it. On the one hand, people have to know that this can happen. On the other hand..."

"What?"

"I'm scared Anderson. Very scared. There are some very unscrupulous people involved in the biotic projects. The little that has been exposed is only the tip of the iceberg. If one of those people hears of the possibility to create biotic xenomorphs... We've just about managed to convince everyone that messing with them is a VERY bad idea. But if this becomes public knowledge, it'll open up a lot of possibilities. There is bound to be some bastard somewhere who wants to give it another try."

Anderson sighed.

"That's... not a good thing to hear. Unfortunately, I don't see what else we can do. We cannot hide it. Apart from the fact that the others saw it too, and will certainly talk about it, this is too important. I guess we'll have to trust in humanity's good nature and hope that nobody is crazy enough to try this. In any case, there is nothing we can do about it now. Let's go. The sooner we're off this ship, the better."

**!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!**

**And that's how Mordin lost that one horn. **

**Once you actually start thinking about it, there is a lot you can do to prepare for a confrontation with xenomorphs. E.g.: a quick release system for your body armour. If it gets splashed with acid, you can rip it off. As for the powder, I'm thinking of some PH-buffer (sodium-bicarbonate comes to mind) that neutralizes the acid. Since they have dealt with the xenomorphs before, it only makes sense that the marines would have specialized equipment to deal with this particular problem.**

**The humans know the basics of biotics, at least enough to recognize them. After all, they've known about eezo for nearly 50 years and exposing unborn children to it is just the sort of thing that Weyand-Yutani would do. You know, for SCIENCE!**

**The ball used to move Mordin actually exists. It's called a personal rescue enclosure. These things were designed for use aboard the space-shuttle to evacuate personnel if they didn't have their own space-suit. In many ways it was an incredibly impractical concept, but I thought it a funny idea that it had somehow survived. (Putting a severly wounded person, who may have a back-injury from being tossed around, into it seems like a rather bad idea, but it's better than nothing.)**


	14. Chapter 13: An end and a beginning

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

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**USM Anzio**

"We're all agreed, then?" Captain Ramirez asked. The boarding party had returned hours ago, but he had waited until the casualties had been taken care of before deciding on the next step.

Anderson nodded. "Yes, sir. That ship has to be destroyed."

"What about the aliens? Do they understand what we're about to do?"

Vickers and Anderson looked at each other. "I believe so, captain," Vickers said. "As much as they understood anything I showed them. The Aliens have seen what we faced. They know their friends are already dead and I showed an image of the Calypso exploding. We may want to send them another image, of the Anzio's guns, with a line, or arrow, to the Calypso, just to make clear that we are not shooting at them. Don't get me wrong. I'm not entirely happy about it. Firing weapons, any kind of weapons, under these circumstances is dangerous, but it is better than the alternative. Lieutenant Anderson is right. We cannot leave the Calypso intact.

"Good, it seems we have a consensus." Ramirez raised his voice to address the crew. "Give me a targeting solution on the Calypso. Stand by forward batteries. Alright people, one more round of communications and then we finish this."

* * *

**Council survey vessel Light of Dawn**

Mordin Solus had been taken to the medical bay, where the ship's doctor was working on him even now. He was not out of danger yet, but the doctor seemed optimistic. Shiana had returned to the bridge to discuss recent events with with Levarn. Her first officer had been busy and it was good to see that they had managed to overcome most of the communication problems. The crew of the Light of Dawn had payed a heavy price, but at least the first contact seemed to be progressing well.

"Captain, we're receving a new message from the human vessel. It looks like another series of images."

Shiana watched as a series of black-and-white drawings appeared on one of her screens. The first showed the human vessel. The second seemed to be a close-up part of the ship that looked suspiciously like a gunport. The third image showed the freighter that they had only recently departed.

"I'm not sure what they mean, captain." Levarn remarked doubtfully. "Do they intent-"

"-to shoot the freighter? Yes. They were quite clear about it. They want to destroy that ship. I see their point. Whatever those creature were that we found on board, they are extremely dangerous."

"But to just casually destroy them like this..."

"Not casually, Levarn. They planned this carefully. Their soldiers carried special medical equipment to deal with acid burns. They knew exactly what they were dealing with and they planned from the beginning to destroy it. In fact, I think they only came on board because we did. I wouldn't be surprised if they had originally planned to destroy the ship without boarding. I have no idea what their relationship is with those things, but they've clearly encountered them before. So, I think we'll leave it up to them to decide what to do. Not that we can do much about it in any case." She looked again at the image. "Let's do the following: Take that image, but break it into two pieces, clearly apart. Then send it back."

* * *

**USM Anzio**

"Look what we got back!" Ramirez said.

Anderson grinned briefly. "Looks like someone has a sense of humor. At least they seem to agree with us. Cannot say I'm surprised, though. I think anyone who has seen a xenomorph up close will hold the same opinion."

"If only, lieutenant." Vickers said softly. "If only."

"Well, no time like the present I guess. Do we have a lock on the target?"

"Yes sir"

"Open fire!"

* * *

No-one aboard either vessel was aware of the three ships that were slowly making their way in-system. The newcomeres were moving ballistically, having shut down their engines to avoid detection as long as possible. Aboard one of the ships a discussion was underway that was becoming increasingly heated.

"Captain, the enemy ship is nearly in range. We should engage now!"

"No," the captain's voice remained calm, despite his obvious annoyance. "Not as long as they are sitting right on top of our allies. Even if we hit them with the first shot, there is no way to prevent them from getting at least one salvo off. At that range they cannot miss and they would tear through the shield as though-."

The conversation was interrupted by one of the sensor analysts.

"Captain, we're picking up weapon's fire!"

The captain swore. "Take us in at maximum acceleration. All ships, open fire as soon as you have a targeting solution!"

* * *

**USM Anzio**

"Captain Ramirez! New contacts, closing fast."

_Never a dull moment_ _aboard this ship, but I really don't need this right now._

"Can you identify them?"

"No, sir."

Suddenly multiple alarms went off.

"Captain, we're being scanned. I think... I think they're targeting us."

Ramirez swore.

"Full thrusters! come about to starboard and give me a shooting solution."

Anzio's engines powered up and the ship started to turn, fast enough that the crew could feel it despite the inertial dampers.

"Activate ECM and get P.O. Nika back in the combat operations centre. We're going to need her."

* * *

**Council survey vessel Light of Dawn**

"Captain!"

Shiana turned around away from the view screen that now showed the mangled wreck of the freighter as the human warship struck it repeatedly with its mass accellerators. "What is it Levarn?"

"New contacts. Three turian vessels. It looks like two cruisers and a frigate. Captain... They are targeting the human ship. They've opened fire!"

"What?! Open a channel. Get me the idiot in charge of those ships!"

On the screen she could see the engines of the human ship come to live, turning it away even as a mass accelerator round struck it amidships. Battlescreens flared up, then collapsed and the round slammed into the hull. Shiana winced as she saw hull plating fly away. The next thing she knew an alarm rang.

"Massive electronic activity, captain. They're flooding the whole spectrum with noise."

* * *

**USM Anzio**

Petty officer Nika was back in her VR chair. She felt a strange sense of elation as she rapidly spun up multiple electronic warfare routines. First contact was all well and good, but ultimately it had been a slow, plodding process that had shown every promise of remaining slow and plodding for the forseeable future. This was different. This was what she had signed up for.  
Inside the virtual environment generated by her helmet, she reached out, searching for the hostile presence that was approaching her ship, both in cyberspace and in reality. It was a strange experience, which some people had described as navigating an interactive three-dimensional maze painted in random colours. And that was when interacting with a hostile human ship. This, this was something else altogether. She noticed the presence of the alien vessel they had been communicating with. Her colleagues had been busy over the past few hours, marking the emissions coming from the ship with tentative labels as they tried to analyze their functions. However, right now she was not concerned with those. Beyond that ship, against a background of random noise generated by the universe itself, she could see the electronic presence of the enemy ships, their targeting systems blazing like searchlights. She traced the signals back to their source. The electronic signatures where incomprehensible and there was no time to analyze them, to try to understand. There was only time to disrupt and destroy. Her hands moved rapidly discarding options, selecting others, generating signal patterns that overlapped those of the hostile sensors. As she worked she was dimly aware of her fellow technicians. They were monitoring her progress, refining her work while she continued wandering through the VR environment, searching for a point of entry.

_There!_

No matter how alien the signals, they had to enter the enemy ship somewhere. A receiver, a data-port; no matter what it was, it was an entrance. The VR environment flared up in a whirling kaleidoscope of shapes and colours as the computers tried, in vain, to make sense of the alien system. It didn't matter. That system, too, had a pattern and even if she could not understand it, she could destroy it. The EW suite locked on to the hostile data-stream, matching its general shape, adjusting until it could enter the enemy computers.

* * *

**Turian cruiser Wings of Valour**

"Captain! Hostiles are interfering with our communcations. We're detecting something... A.., a presence in the data-stream. It's trying to enter our systems."

"Block it! Close all external communications communications and purch the system."

Captain Adrien Victus watched as the second salvo from his ships went wide, missing the human warship that was maneouvering rapidly to get out of the line of fire. With their communications down the effectiveness of his ships would be severely reduced and he would be unable to contact the survey vessel. Still, he could not risk that the humans would penetrate his electronic security.

"Enemy is returning fire. Multiple rounds incoming."

Victus braced himself as the first enemy salvo rapidly closed the distance.

* * *

**USM Anzio**

Captain Ramirez watched as the first salvos went out. His initial maneouvre had allowed him to bring both of Anzio's turrets to bear upon the enemy and volleys of four solid metal slugs a-piece raced toward the enemy vessels.

"Direct hit on the leading vessel. Rounds did not penetrate the shields."

"Damn!" Ramirez looked at the tactical screen. This was a fight he couldn't hope to win. His ship was already damaged, the odds were three-to-one against him and Anzio had never been designed for heavy ship-to-ship action. "Plot a course away from the enemy. Try to keep he planet between us as much as possible and spin up the FTL core. We're out of here."

Anzio shook as a second hit penetrated her overloaded battlescreens and red lights started blinking on several consoles. She was still in the fight, her main battery returning fire and registering multiple hits in quick succession. A cheer went up among the bridge crew as one of her mass accelerator rounds managed to penetrate the enemy shields, but it was simply not enough, the balance in firepower was too uneven. Fortunately, time and distance were on her side. While the enemy was now slowing down in order to match speed, Anzio's engines were at 100 percent thrust, accelerating her rapidly on a different vector and the FTL drive was nearly ready. Ramirez breathed a little more easily. They were going to make it.  
He turned toward Anderson.

"What the HELL just happened?"

* * *

**Council survey vessel Light of Dawn.**

"Captain, the turians are hailing us. A captain Adrien Victus is in command."

Shiana tried in vain to keep her rage under control as the holographic image of a turian officer appeared on the bridge. The human warship was accelerating rapidly and her sensors showed the tell-tale sign of an FTL core powering up. There was no way to contact them, to try to explain that all of this was a mistake. They would return to their people, not with a message of peace, but with tales of ambushes and betrayal. _A first contact! A ship full of monsters; three people dead! But we managed it. We actually managed to make peaceful first contact and now this!_

"Captain Armali. I apologize for not interfering earlier, but-"

"Not interfering...?! You shouldn't have interfered at all! What are you even doing here."

"The council received your message that you had found a derelict vessel of unknown origin. We were dispatched to render assistance, should it be needed."

"As... Assistance?! Do you have any idea what you have just done, captain Victus? You have started a war!"

The turian's expression was unreadable. "Captain Armali, I'm afraid I have bad news. We are already at war."

**!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!**

**They did everything right. Despite the stressful situation they achieved a peaceful first contact. Unfortunately, somebody, somewhere else, screwed up, and now it's spilling over.**

**The fact that the electronic warfare routines are effective against the turians doesn't mean they have the slightest idea how the turians' systems work. It's more a matter of: 'Hey, I see a bunch of ones and zeros. Let's reverse those and see what happens." That's part of the reason they didn't try that sort of routine during first contact.  
**

**I'm using slightly different terminology for the warships, e.g. calling the turian ships destroyers rather than cruisers, because the humans use a different classification scheme than the ME races.**


	15. Chapter 14: The best laid plans

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox**

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**A/N Oops. A bit more confusion than I had expected. It shouldn't have come as a surprise though, because what some people thought is actually something that I considered at one time. For the record: The first contact war has already started at Relay 314, more or less as it happened in ME canon. The two ships in this system just hadn't gotten the news yet.  
At one time I considered starting the FCW here, by having the turians make the exact same mistake they are making now and that leading to war. However, I found two big problems with that scenario. **

**1) Like ****metaladdict**** said in his review, under normal circumstances the turians should have contacted the survey ship the moment they entered the system, especially since they knew there was a possibility of a first contact situation. (Having the turians enter the system just as the Anzio opened fire would have been too much of a coincidence.) So, no need to overreact. Plus, with the turians approaching openly, the humans could easily have waited a little before blowing things up. It's not as though the freighter is going anywhere.  
**

**2) With the crew of a survey vessel ready to testify that it was all a misunderstanding, the war could be stopped before it started, even if there was a battle. Initially neither side would know where the others lived and there would be plenty of time to work things out and get the council involved. One explanation would have been that the survey ship had accidentally brought a xenomorph on board that wiped out the crew and that the turian commander lied to cover his ass, but it would have been tough to justify. One xenomorph wiped out the crew of the Nostromo, sure, but the council ship has a much larger crew, many of them combat-trained. I briefly toyed with the idea of having the turians deliberately destroy the survey ship to cover up their mistakes. that would have made for an interesting conspiracy story, but it is not the direction I want to take.  
Besides, either explanation would have killed off both Mordin and Liara and I'm not ready to do that yet.**

**I could probably have worked around the first problem (the turians were pretty trigger-happy in the canon version and it takes only one idiot to start shooting), but the second would be tough. I dont't want to cast either the turian hierarchy or the council as villains (some individuals, maybe, but not the organisations themselves) and it would be very tough to justify them continuing the war if they knew what had happened. So, I chose to keep the Relay 314 encounter from ME canon. It will give me the opportunity to show a messed up first contact in contrast to one that was actually quite successful.**

**!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!**

**Council survey vessel Light of Dawn.**

Shiana felt very, very tired as she listened to the turian captain.

"Approximately two weeks ago, one of our patrols encountered a new species, these humans, in the process of activating a dormant mass relay. The patrol attempted to stop them. I don't have all the information as to exactly what happened, but shots were exchanged and most of the human ships were destroyed. Human reinforcements then engaged and destroyed our patrol. Since then there have been several more encounters, all hostile. When the hierarchy received a copy of your report of a possible first contact, we were sent to investigate, just in case you had encountered the same species. When we entered this system we saw the human warship. We were approaching under minimum power to avoid detection when the humans opened fire."

"They didn't fire on us!"

Captain Victus' mandibles flared in the turian equivalent of a sigh. "I know that now, captain, but that is not so easy to spot from a distance and I didn't have time to make enquiries. Once the shooting started I had to interfere immediately. If they had been firing at you, they could have destroyed your ship in a few salvoes."

"Why did you not contact us earlier, when there was still time? "

"Captain Armali, we are at war. Whatever the exact circumstances, right now these humans are our enemies. Their weapons may be weaker than our own, but their electronic warfare is quite good, possibly AI operated, and there was a serious risk of our signal being intercepted. I-"

"Wait..., what? AI operated? I never saw any sign of artificial intelligence."

"We're not sure. We have seen several examples of small vehicles operating without crew. There have also been indications in the way their electronic warfare systems act and react when they engage us. We have no way to tell unless we capture one of their ships intact. As I was saying, I was not going to risk alerting them to our approach before we were within range. For all I knew they had already boarded your ship. I could not risk them using your ship and crew as hostages, or simply killing you before we could stop them."

"I see. Very well, captain Victus. I understand you acted in what you thought were our best interests. As you said, there was no way for you to know what had happened. What does the hierarchy plan to do about this situation?"

Victus looked down for a moment, then he said, "I cannot go into details, I'm afraid. Those are still confidential. However, I can inform you, that the hierarchy has committed to an operation that will, we hope, bring the war to a swift conclusion and allow diplomats to start negotiating peace settlements."

As he spoke he seemed to study her face, as though he was hoping to read her facial expressions, despite the limitations of the holographic image.

Shiana thought back over the events of the recent past. She remembered airlocks blowing open and heavily armed soldiers rushing in with frightening speed and efficiency. She remembered the bodies of monsters torn to shreds by a hail of bullets and a single ship fighting against three-to-one odds.

"I hope you're right, captain Victus." Shiana carefully kept her voice as emotionless as the turian's. "I sincerely hope that this war can be brought to a swift conclusion."

She took a last look at the wreck of the human freighter. Although the humans had not been able to destroy it completely, the damage was extensive. In many places she could see straight through the hull. Whatever had been on board was certainly dead by now.

"Mr. Levarn?"

"Yes, captain?"

"Prepare the ship for departure. We'll make for the nearest relay, then head for the citadel. The council has to hear what happened, immediately."

_What in Athame's name have these strutting fools gotten us into? _

* * *

As the Light of Dawn, together with the turian warships, departed the system, they failed to notice the cloaked ship that had been observing everything. Once the crew was certain that there was no longer any chance of discovery, the ship decloaked and moved towards the wreck of the human freighter. As soon as the range had closed sufficiently, suited figures departed from the ship and entered the wreck. After a while a message was send back:

"We found it. It's wounded and in hypernation, but alive."

Aboard the ship the signal was received with great satisfaction.

"It seems that following the humans was worth our time and effort after all."

"Yes. If we can recover it alive, it will simplify things greatly. We will not have to rely on the eggs from the human colony."

"Perhaps we should have interfered earlier, before the turians arrived."

"No, there was no guarantee that we could destroy both the human ship and the council vessel, before one of them escaped. If one of those ships had survived and reported back, it could have ruined everything. In a way the turians did us a favor. They kept the humans from completing the freighter's destruction. With the creature recovered, we will still be able to set things in motion."

"Even though the humans and the citadel races have now met?"

"That was about to happen soon anyway. But we must be cautious. The turians acted more rashly than expected. Something must have happened to make them behave this way and we cannot proceed until we understand why. In any case, we cannot use the humans. Not anymore. Their new policy regarding the serpents is too... pragmatic. We need someone... someone curious, less prone to destructive solutions, more willing to take risks."

* * *

**One week later**

**Human Colony Shanxi, planetside**

In a bunker, deep underground, general Williams looked in despair at his dwindling assets. His soldiers had given a good account of themselves, but they could not hold out much longer. They were running out of manpower, they were running out of supplies, and, most of all, they were simply running out of time. Unless reinforcements appeared within the next few days, he would have to make a choice: either fight to the death, or surrender.

**Human Colony Shanxi, orbit**

General Desolas Arterius cursed, softly and viciously, as he stared at the latest report from the ground-force commander. He cursed again as he looked at the casualty list. Already the losses were more than twice as a high as predicted and with no hope for a quick victory in sight he would either have to slow down their tempo of operations, or request more troops from Palaven command. The first could spell disaster and the latter would further escalate the situation. It was time for a change in strategy.

**The Citadel**

Councillor Tevos, representative of the asari people on the citadel council, looked at the latest report from the turian fleet near Relay 314. It told her nothing she didn't already know. Turian forces were securing the human colony. They had been securing it for days, but it didn't seem to be getting any more secure, and with every day that passed a diplomatic solution seemed to slip further and further out of her reach.

"Councillor," one of her assistants interrupted her gloomy train of thought. "The survey vessel Light of Dawn has docked at the citadel. Captain Armali has a report for you regarding the first-contact situation she encountered. She says that it is extremely urgent."

**Arcturus Station, United System Military headquarters**

Admiral Kastanie Drescher tossed the latest status report on the pile on her desk. Second fleet was not as ready as she could have wished and the ground forces that were supposed to carry out the counter attack on Shanxi were still in the process of assembling. Still, with every day she waited, she was sacrificing the lives of the colony's defenders. Contact with general Williams had been lost almost immediately and there was no telling how long he and his soldiers could hold out.

"Ma'am." Someone tried to get her attention.

"Yes, lieutenant."

"Ma'am, we just received a report from Anzio. They claim to have made first contact with several alien species. They have included some visuals, admiral, and one drawing looks like the images from Shanxi."

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**FINAL WORDS  
**

I started writing this story as an experiment. I had been reading stories at FanFiction for a while, but I'd never actually posted anything. Also, it had been a while since I attempted to write any kind of fiction. So, when I hit on an idea for a story, I decided to give it a try. So far, the response has been very gratifying. Far more people took an interest than I had ever dreamt. Still, it is time to wrap things up. Not to worry. I'm having too much fun with this to stop writing anytime soon. However, this seemed a good point to end the first part. The events on, and around, the Calypso have now reached their conclusion. The next instalment will deal with the First Contact War, following the events from Relay 314 through the battle for Shanxi to the negotiations with the council. I hope to accomplish three things: 1) Describe how a first contact situation can go horribly wrong, as opposed to the generally successful attempt seen in this story. 2) Find a way to show the First Contact War as a genuine tragedy, rather than a product of turian imperialism and council incompetence. (That will be something of a challenge!) 3) Do enough world-building to set the stage for Shepard, the return of the xenomorphs, and the introduction of the predators (yes, they had a cameo in the last chapter). The new story will be a bit different in style (less Ridley Scott, more James Cameron so to speak, maybe with a dash of Michael Bay).

I have posted the first chapter of the new story under the title **Someone had blundered.** Since I already have the plot worked out I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to update on a regular basis. By the time it is done, I hope to be ready to start the third instalment, which will feature Shepard. In the mean time, I will also continue with the occasional upload to **intelligence reports** to fill in gaps in the background information.

Once more, thanks for all the feedback!

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**!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!**

**I suppose Shiana is a bit uncharitable in her assessment of the turians, but she has reason to be upset. Despite the circumstances she managed to pull off a perfect first-contact, only to find out that it was all for nothing.**

**I'm not introducing robots like Ash or Bishop. To my thinking they were too advanced compared to the rest of human tech in the Alien franchise. Besides I don't want a situation where the humans get to lecture the council on their intolerance for AIs. That has been done before and I don't intend to put humans on a pedestal compared to the ME races. Why do the turians think humans use AIs? Let's just say it is an honest mistake.**

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**Eipok**** The visual connection could give you the meaning to nouns and verbs, but that is not enough to speak a language. You need some form of grammar. For example, in Latin, the sequence of words in a sentence is largely irrelevant to the meaning. So, unless you know how to manipulate the individual words, you may end up saying the exact opposite of what you mean. In some ways that could actually be worse than not understanding at all. Don't get me wrong, if a mind-meld can indeed link words to images it would be a very good shortcut, but it has its limitations. Also, I don't think we know if it works for an asari in ME canon. Javik can do it, but protheans clearly have a lof of abilities that asari don't have. What Shiala does in ME1 is transferring a prothean cipher, so it is the language of a species that evolved with the ability to transfer information by tough. We don't actually know if an asari can learn any language this way.  
I exaggerated a little aobut the rescue ball, because it is being observed by an alien who has only seen humans in space suits and body armour. Rescue balls are indeed not all that difficult to get into. (At least when you're young. When you get older, you'll find it tougher to curl up like that.) However, it is a whole different thing to put somebody who is unconscious into it. You're trying to manipulate a mass of 50-100 kg that is not cooperating. You'll have to pick him up, put him in the ball and then fold his limbs the way you want them. That's quite a challenge.  
**

**Quintain Apprentince of Alduin****: Just showing the turians what they're dealing with would indeed have been the logical next move, if things had been different. In fact, they would probably be the first to agree with a scorched earth policy against xenomorphs. Unfortunately, right now even Shiana has a very incomplete picture of the situation. Between limited time and poor communications there was no opportunity to show her everything, so she thinks that they are just a bunch of very deadly predators. Smart, yes, maybe about the level of a wolf or a hyena, but not sapient. She doesn't know about the queen and she still underestimates the toughness of the xenomorphs. She has only seen them operate in a normal atmosphere, so she has no way to tell that they don't actually seem to need air at all. Also, she had no way of knowing that the ship had been travelling for years and that they had survived all that time in hibernation. That ignorance is going to come back to haunt everybody, because the humans believe that they have cleared up the entire mess and would rather forget about the whole thing. Also, by the time the first contact war is done, they will not be in a generous mood, so as far as they are concerned, the whole xenomorph situation is classified information and the ME races should just mind their own business.  
Compared to the rachni, I wouldn't say the xenomorphs are necessarily worse. Just very different. Rachni can build spaceships, the xenomorphs cannot. Xenomorphs are more like a disease than an enemy. You can contain them, if you're willing to make touch choices. **


End file.
